SAS Brings New Charges Against WPL

New lawsuit includes copyright and patent infringement, adds other parties

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Jul 18, 2018, 11:31 ET

CARY, N.C., July 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Continuing its efforts to prevent WPL from stealing substantial portions of SAS^® software, SAS has filed a patent and copyright infringement lawsuit against WPL, as well as its resellers, partners and customers. The lawsuit charges WPL with infringement of SAS copyrights and three US patents.

"We need to protect the hard, creative and inventive work SAS employees put into the SAS system – and that our customers have invested in," said John Boswell, Chief Legal Officer for SAS. "While WPL continues to take shortcuts that place itself and its customers in legal jeopardy, we will continue doing good and ethical business with our customers and partners, as we have for more than 40 years."

In earlier litigation, SAS proved – and a federal district court and a court of appeals affirmed – that WPL committed fraud and breached license agreements in the creation of WPS. That litigation resulted in a $79 million award to SAS, which WPL has not paid.

"WPL continues to behave as if the law doesn't apply to them when it comes to software development and innovation," continued Boswell. "We are taking necessary actions to hold them responsible for infringing SAS' intellectual property rights."

SAS is being represented by McGuireWoods LLP.

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