On May 20, 2020, a judge in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit vacated the District Court for the Southern District of Florida’s decision in the matter of Compulife Software Inc. v. Newman et al, remanding the case for new findings of fact.
The Eleventh Circuit held that the district court judge (1) improperly placed the burden on Compulife to prove that the elements Newman copied were protectable, instead of forcing Newman to prove that they were not protectable, and (2) evaluated Newman’s copying via the allegedly infringing work instead of via Compulife’s copyrighted work. The copyright in dispute relates to a “Transformative Database” that electronically calculates, organizes, and compares life-insurance quotes.
