WealthCounsel Seeks Declaratory Judgment Against AbacusNext's Agreement Breach Claims
WealthCounsel filed a complaint in a Utah federal court seeking declaratory judgment against AbacusNext's previous assertions that it breached an agreement and reverse engineered its legal document drafting software.
June 12, 2020 at 04:33 PM
3 minute read
Legal document drafting software provider WealthCounsel is seeking declaratory judgment against claims it breached AbacusNext's licensing agreement and infringed on its copyrights.
On June 11, WealthCounsel filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah denying allegations made by AbacusNext in a February cease-and-desist letter and is seeking over $75,000 in damages.
Specifically, the company requested five claims of declaratory judgment of non-infringement of AbacusNext's copyrights; non-breach of the agreement; non-breach of a covenant of good faith and fair dealing; no intentional interference with prospective economic advantage; and no unfair competition.
WealthCounsel's filing is in response to a cease and desist letter from AbacusNext. AbacusNext has alleged the development and distribution of WealthCounsel's Wealth Docx, Business Docx and Gun Docx legal drafting software constitutes a "clear" violation of its 2013 license agreement, which prohibits WealthCounsel from reverse engineering, or developing any derivative work based on, AbacusNext's HotDocs Software.
AbacusNext also accused WealthCounsel of copyright infringement, alleging WealthCounsel's website regarding Wealth Docx includes a video of a HotDocs demonstration. Additionally, AbacusNext stated WealthCounsel no longer has a license to use a publisher key and must cease and desist publishing any HotDocs templates for direct use, assembly or use via HotDocs Player, according to the exhibit provided by WealthCounsel.
WealthCounsel, however, has argued that all of AbacusNext's breach, infringement and unfair usage claims were false, and its use of AbacusNext's software complied with the 2013 licensing agreement. Along with arguing it didn't breach any contract or violate AbacusNext's copyrights, WealthCounsel alleged AbacusNext is attempting to "strong arm" it into accepting "draconian new business terms."
In its filing, WealthCounsel noted, "The mere existence of Abacus's threats leaves a cloud over the continued development and use of WealthCounsel templates and/or independently created software, altering WealthCounsel's business decisions and likely to cause damages to WealthCounsel."
WealthCounsel wrote it has licensed HotDocs software since 2008 for the development and distribution of templates. In 2017, HotDocs was acquired by AbacusNext.
By October 2019, Abacus suggested a new publisher agreement that included a 10% increase in royalty payment each year, which WealthCounsel called "onerous terms," according to the complaint.
WealthCounsel declined the new arrangement, and in February 2020 was sent a cease-and-desist letter.
Requests for comment from WealthCounsel's Browne George Ross and Kirton McConkie attorneys weren't answered by press time. AbacusNext declined to comment.
WealthCounsel isn't the only legal tech company recently fending off infringement accusations. Thomson Reuters' Westlaw sued ROSS Intelligence in May, alleging the legal research software company infringed on its copyrighted materials. ROSS flatly denied those allegations and said it has never requested or used proprietary data from Westlaw. The case is still pending.
Read the complaint:
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