By Leo Gasteen
In a peculiar case characterized by non contractual liability, the European Commission has been ordered to pay a total of EUR 12 million to Systran, a language translation software company, after the General Court ruled that the Commission had acted unlawfully.
In its ruling the General Court noted that despite Systran’s parent company informing the Commussion of a possible infringement of IP rights, the Commission disregarded this news, and proceeded to continue on an unlawful path.
In its defense the Commission stated that Systran had not provided probative documents, which would fortify its copyright claim. However, due to the similarity between EC-Systran system and the marketed Systran -Unix version, the General Court determined that Systran can rely on the rights held in the widely avaliable Unix edition.
The General Court noted that the Commission was infringing its copyright when unauthorised development of the EC-Systran Unix version was carried out by the successful contractor.
Background
Between 22 December 1997 and 15 March 2002, the company Systran Luxembourg adapted, under the name EC-Systran Unix, its Systran-Unix machine translation software to the specific needs of the Commission in this field.
On 4 October 2003 the Commission published a call for tenders for the maintenance and linguistic enhancement of its machine translation system. The services required by the Commission from the successful contractor concerned, inter alia, enhancements, adaptations and additions to linguistic routines; specific improvements to analysis, transfer and synthesis programs and system updates, as covered by the call for tenders.
Following that call for tenders, Systran the parent company of Systran Luxembourg contacted the Commission to inform it that the planned work appeared likely to infringe its intellectual property rights. For more than 40 years Systran has supplied companies and authorities with machine translation solutions based on the software which bears its name. In particular, Systran created and marketed a version of the Systran software capable of functioning on the Unix and Windows operating systems (Systran Unix) and of replacing the earlier, now obsolete version, which functioned on the Mainframe operating system (Systran Mainframe).
As regards the damage, the General Court rules that liquidated damages and interest amounting to 12 001 000 must be paid to Systran to compensate it for the damage suffered as a result of the Commissions unlawful conduct, namely:
– 7 million corresponding to the total fees which would have been payable between 2004 and 2010 if the Commission had requested permission to use Systrans intellectual property rights in order to carry out the work specified in the call for tenders, which requires access to and alteration of elements of the Systran Unix version reproduced in the EC-Systran Unix version;
– 5 million as compensation for the effect which the Commissions conduct might have had on Systrans turnover in the years 2004 to 2010, and more widely on the development of that company;
– 1 000 as compensation for non-material damage.
General Court – Justice and Application – Full Text Case T 19 / 07
