SAS in line for $79M award, as US Supreme Court leaves injunction against WPL in place
SAS Institute says it’s still in line for a multi-million-dollar pay out after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case involving the Cary-based company and a British technology firm called World Programming Limited.
The decision represents the latest update in a decade-long legal dispute between SAS and World Progamming Limited (WPL), whom SAS has repeatedly accused of illegally reverse-engineering its analytics software.
SAS’ statistical software, built in the 1970s, has made the company a giant in analytics.
In its lawsuits, SAS has alleged that WPL bought copies of a “learning edition” that SAS sells to students, and then proceeded to break down how the company’s software worked. That allowed WPL to write its own software that essentially mimicked SAS’ popular software tools.
This created an obvious business threat to SAS, as some customers could easily switch to WPL’s analytics program without much friction. WPL also went on to market its software to customers for less than SAS charged.
In 2015, a North Carolina jury found that WPL had committed fraud in its dealings with SAS that ultimately led to the creation of its own software.
In that case, SAS was awarded damages worth up to $79 million for violating North Carolina’s unfair trade practices act, The N&O reported.
However, the company continued to fight the payments, which were significant for the small company.
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the monetary damages decision last year and placed an injunction on WPL’s ability to make new sales in the U.S. until it paid the sum.
SAS celebrated the decision in a press release on Tuesday, noting that WPL had not yet paid most of the $79 million sum. Around $70 million of the damages remain to be paid, said Press Millen, a lawyer representing SAS in the case, on Tuesday.
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a writ of certiorari submitted by WPL to take up the Fourth Circuit case, meaning its ruling remains in place.
WPL has not responded to The News & Observer’s request for comment.
Another lawsuit against WPL
The Fourth Circuit case is separate from another lawsuit that SAS has levied against WPL in a Texas district court.
In that case, SAS sought to prove that WPL had violated copyright law when it cloned SAS’s software — a claim that SAS could not get to stick in the Fourth Circuit ruling.
However, SAS has found little success in the Texas case yet.
Last October, a judge, based in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, ruled that parts of SAS’ software were not copyrightable and dismissed the claims with prejudice.
SAS told The News & Observer last year that it would appeal the Texas court’s decision.
SAS, co-founded by Jim Goodnight while he was a teacher at N.C. State University, employs around 6,000 people at its headquarters in Cary and made Goodnight the wealthiest man in North Carolina.
This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work. Learn more; go to bit.ly/newsinnovate
This story was originally published January 19, 2021 at 3:17 PM with the headline "SAS in line for $79M award, as US Supreme Court leaves injunction against WPL in place."
