The Superior Court Partially Accepts Druide’s Defence

Druide informatique is considering the possibility of appealing the Superior Court’s decision to partially accept its defence against a motion for a permanent injunction and damages filed by Québec Amérique (“QA”). QA’s often-amended motion, filed over five years ago, sought to compel Druide to remove the contents of the Dictionnaire Visuel (Visual Dictionary, herein referred to as the “Works”) from editions HD, 8 and 9 of its Antidote software. 

This marks the second time that the Superior Court has rejected QA’s claim that no agreement was ever reached between both parties on this matter. In her September 14, 2017 ruling, Judge Élise Poisson declared that QA had clearly consented to the use of the Works in Antidote HD. She added, however, that this consent did not extend to Antidote 8 and 9, which, according to the plaintiffs against Druide, constituted a decisive mistake.

While Druide will not be forced to remove the Works from editions 8 and 9 of Antidote, as QA had demanded, the Court nevertheless ordered its removal from the next edition, by December 2018 at the latest. Druide’s partners and clients can therefore still acquire and use Antidote 9 unhindered. But that leaves less than sixteen months to replace the Works, a manifestly unreasonable deadline when considering the many years it took QA to create them.

Other, often factual, errors could be brought forward to the Court of Appeal. For example, Judge Poisson accused Druide of using the Works in the English module of Antidote 9’s bilingual version. However, as per the agreement with QA, they only feature in the French module.

See also : The Court of Appeal Grants Druide’s Motion (January, 8 2018)