ECIMOS, LLC v. Carrier Corporation

    DisputeSoft was engaged as a testifying expert in February 2016 by Carrier Corporation in the matter of ECIMOS, LLC v. Carrier Corporation in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, Memphis.

    Plaintiff ECIMOS purchased all assets of Electrical Control, Inc. (ECI) in March 2012. In 1990, ECI created an Integrated Process Control System (ICPS) and accompanying Application Program Interfaces (API) and ECIScript files to process and test heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration (HVAC-R) products. Since 1992, ECI has licensed the ECI AutoTest component of the ICPS to Carrier Corporation (Carrier), and in November 2004, licensed custom quality assurance APIs and ECIScript files to Carrier for use with their new energy efficient product configurations.

    ECIMOS alleged that beginning in 2014, Carrier reverse engineered the ECI software and disseminated ECI’s confidential information to unauthorized users to develop competing testing and processing software. After demanding a licensing fee for use of the AutoTest component and the ICPS on all upgraded computers and systems, ECIMOS terminated the software licensing agreement in October 2015 when Carrier did not agree to pay additional fees.

    Nature of Dispute

    In November 2015, ECIMOS filed a copyright infringement dispute, alleging that Carrier breached a software licensing agreement by:

    1
    Misusing, misappropriating, failing to return, and disclosing confidential information to several third parties.
    2
    Infringing upon ECI’s copyright by using proprietary APIs and ECIScript files without a license and without payment of licensing fees to develop competing software, RES.
    3
    Failing to return ECI's software documentation and failing to remove ECI's software and data from Carrier’s computer networks and servers.

    Our Services

    As a software expert for Carrier, DisputeSoft:

    1
    Performed a manual review and comparison of the ECIMOS ECI and Carrier RES source code files and database schema, and conducted an indexed full-text search for the names of every ECI API and Script to locate potential indicia of copying.
    2
    Provided a rebuttal report of ECIMOS’s technical expert to highlight deficiencies in database evaluation methodology and findings with respect to allegations of copyright infringement.
    3
    Conducted a comparison of the tables and stored procedures between the ECI and RES databases, filtering out elements that would be dictated by the requirements of the industry and capturing test results.

    Senior Manager and Forensic Examiner Josh Siegel traveled to Tennessee to conduct an on-site examination of the software and hardware used in Carrier’s manufacturing plant. Josh proffered two declarations, an expert report, a supplemental expert report, and a rebuttal report on behalf of Carrier Corporation, and testified as to his opinions at a preliminary injunction hearing, deposition, and jury trial. His expert reports and testimony contained affirmative opinions related to clean room design, computer APIs, database schema comparison, and source code analysis. The case is on appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

    Jeff Parmet

    Jeff Parmet (1946 – 2023)

    Founder & Chief Advisor (2003 - 2023)

    Jeff Parmet was a widely respected IT dispute resolution specialist who served as a con…

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    Josh Siegel

    Director & Forensic Examiner

    Josh Siegel has substantial experience analyzing copyright, patent, and trade secret cl…

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    Anne Ackerman

    Director, Operations

    Anne Ackerman has extensive experience in investigating software failure matters, inclu…

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    T.J. Wolf

    General Counsel & Senior Consultant

    Since joining DisputeSoft in 2016, T.J. Wolf has consulted for clients on a variety of…

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