On November 23, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed in part, and reversed in part, a U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan’s ruling in the matter of RJ Control Consultants, Inc. et al. v. Multiject, LLC, et al.
The Sixth Circuit affirmed the grant of summary judgment with respect to a copyright infringement claim, finding that the defendant did not infringe upon RJ Control Consultants’ molding machine when they used copyrighted technical drawings to manufacture the control system, “because the recreation of a control system by using a copyrighted technical drawing is not ‘copying’ for purposes of the Copyright Act.” The Sixth Circuit reversed the district court’s summary judgment grant regarding RJ Control Consultant’s software source code, finding that expert review of the source code was required to determine whether copyrighted functionality was present in the allegedly infringing system.
