Gates Rubber Co. v. Bando Chemical Industries, Ltd.
United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
9 F.3d 823 (1993)

- Written by Sean Carroll, JD
Facts
Gates Rubber Company (Gates) (plaintiff) manufactured rubber belts for industrial use. Gates created a computer program that could determine the proper belt for a given machine, which, absent the program, was a complex endeavor. Bando Chemical Industries, Limited (Bando) (defendant) employed multiple former Gates employees. Bando created a computer program that was similar to Gates’s program. Gates sued Bando for copyright infringement. The district court analyzed the similarities of the programs. Among other things, the court analyzed Bando’s copying of the constants in Gates’s program—the invariable numbers that are part of the formulae in the program—as well as the program’s modules. Ultimately, the court ruled in favor of Gates. Bando appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Ebel, J.)
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