Court upholds GEO PRO’s claim for copyright infringement and protection of geospatial information

Riga Regional Court has announced a favorable verdict for GEO PRO SIA in the case against Daugavpils satiksme SIA (municipal capital company) for copyright infringement and recovery of material compensation.

During the legal proceedings, COBALT managed to prove that by reproducing GEO PRO topographic plans in .dwg format files and transferring them to third parties without the plaintiff’s permission, Daugavpils satiksme has committed copyright infringement. The court concluded that the topographic plans, until they are coordinated and added to the centralized database, are considered to be an absolutely free creative expression of the surveyor in a visual technical format, which in turn is the basis for the conclusion that the topographic plans developed by GEO PRO are copyright objects.

“We are pleased with the favourable outcome of the second instance proceedings as well as the court’s conclusions on the protection of geospatial information data from a copyright perspective. The industry continues to witness blatant copyright violations directly by tenderers both in public and private procurement scenarios, so we hope that this court ruling will provide the necessary incentive to improve the overall situation of geospatial information protection by establishing clear rules of the game for all market participants,” comments attorney at law Jānis Sarāns-Reneslācis.

The Riga Regional Court fully satisfied the COBALT client’s claim and decided to recover compensation from Daugavpils satiksme in accordance with the license fee method, as well as litigation costs.

The client was represented in the case by COBALT’s Senior Associate, attorney at law Jānis Sarāns-Reneslācis.