US/Japan: Tenth Circuit overturns $43 million tech fine

The 10th Circuit on Monday overturned a $43 million judgment, finding that Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen Sanderson does not owe Massachusetts-based software company SolidFX the money for lost profits. Jeppesen Sanderson, which creates terminal charts for Boeing pilots, asked SolidFX in 2008 to develop an electronic app that would act as an e-reader for Jeppesen data for pilots.

After negotiating a licensing agreement, SolidFX began selling the iRex devices that came embedded with Jeppesen’s data on a platform created by SolidFX. After Apple released its iPad in 2010, SolidFX asked Jeppesen for the toolkit used in the app, to adapt it for the iPad. Jeppesen refused.

Months later, Jeppesen announced that it had created its own iPad app, free for its terminal chart users.
SolidFX sued Jeppesen in Colorado Federal Court on breach of contract and antitrust charges, claiming that Jeppesen had concealed its own development of the iPad app.

US District Judge William J. Martinez presided over an eight-day trial in April 2014, in which a jury awarded SolidFX $43 million in lost profits due to Jeppesen’s breach of contract. But the trial court rejected SolidFX’s antitrust claims, finding that Jeppesen had simply exercised its right to refuse to license copyrighted work.

Jeppesen appealed the $43 million award, claiming SolidFX could not recover lost profits from its contract claims because the licensing agreement expressly prohibited it. SolidFX cross-appealed on its antitrust claim, saying Jeppesen illegally monopolized the product SolidFX and Jeppesen created together.

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