This case concerns the legal issue of the legality of trading in used software and has gained notoriety under the name “UsedSoft”. We represented Oracle, plaintiff in the litigation.
The case began in 2005 with an application for a temporary injunction and ended with an order by the Superior Court of Munich on March 2, 2015 compelling UsedSoft to bear the costs of the litigation after second appeal proceedings before the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) and a reference for preliminary ruling proceeding before the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in 2015 after UsedSoft
- had issued cease-and-desist declarations concerning a portion of the asserted cease and desist claims to avoid a judgment and after the litigation had thus been mutually declared to have been settled in part,
- then withdrew its appeal against the judgment of the court of first instance which had fully ruled in favor of Oracle’s complaint.
The litigation was handled from start to finish (2005 to 2015) by our partner Dr. Truiken Heydn as lead counsel.
The main and much discussed rulings:
ECJ, judgment of July 3, 2012 – UsedSoft, and
German Federal Court of Justice (FCJ), Urteil vom 17.7.2013, MMR 2014, 232 – UsedSoft II annotated by Heydn
District Court of Munich I, judgment of March 15, 2007, file no. 7 0 7061/06, MMR 2007, 328, final with respect to the cease and desist obligation under copyright law
Superior Court of Munich, order of March 2, 2015, MMR 2015, 397 – UsedSoft annotated by Heydn