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Computer Associates International, Inc. v. Altai, Inc.

126 F.3d 365 (1997)

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Computer Associates International, Inc. v. Altai, Inc.

United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
126 F.3d 365 (1997)

Facts

In August 1988, Computer Associates International, Inc. (Computer Associates) (plaintiff) sued Altai, Inc. (defendant) in the US for copyright infringement. Computer Associates alleged that Altai had violated its copyright by copying parts of a Computer Associates program into Altai’s own OSCAR 3.4 and OSCAR 3.5 programs. While the case was pending, Computer Associates filed a copyright claim in France, alleging that Altai and Altai’s French distributor had imported OSCAR 3.5 into France for distribution in violation of Computer Associates’ French copyright. In August 1991, the US court held that Altai’s OSCAR 3.4 violated Computer Associates’ copyright but OSCAR 3.5 was sufficiently different from the Computer Associates program so as not to violate the copyright. The French court subsequently ruled that OSCAR 3.5 did not violate Computer Associates’ French copyright. Computer Associates appealed the French decision. Altai asked the US court to enjoin Computer Associates from pursuing the litigation in France on the grounds that the decision of the US court that OSCAR 3.5 did not violate Computer Associates’ copyright precluded the French litigation. The court dismissed the motion, and Altai appealed.

Rule of Law

Issue

Holding and Reasoning (Walker. J.)

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