The Supreme Court Says No to Québec Amérique

The Supreme Court of Canada has dismissed the most recent motion by Québec Amérique (QA) against Druide informatique. It thus puts an end to a judicial saga lasting close to a decade, and confirms the ruling delivered by three judges of the Quebec Court of Appeal: Druide did not violate QA’s copyright.

Let’s recall that QA filed its initial lawsuit on August 13, 2012, and only announced it three months later, in the middle of Montréal’s Salon du Livre, with the obvious goal of damaging Druide informatique and its editorial subsidiary, Éditions Druide. Through this lawsuit, QA sought to compel Druide to remove the contents of the Dictionnaire Visuel (Visual Dictionary) from edition HD of Antidote, alleging that an agreement had never been reached in this regard. The many judges called upon to rule on this claim have all rejected it, stating that, on the contrary, QA had clearly consented to the use of this content.

In a ruling delivered on January 21, 2013, rejecting another motion by QA, the Superior Court even states that “Québec Amerique agreed to operate within a framework that was sometimes vague, sometimes defined, but ever evolving, as if it wanted to cover its back in case the project turned sour.” Druide welcomed this first ruling, as it had used the content of the Visual Dictionary in Antidote since 1998, in accordance with the licences agreed upon by QA.

André d’Orsonnens, Chairman and CEO of Druide informatique, finds the judicial guerrilla warfare led by QA deplorable: “Even though we are happy about the Supreme Court ruling, we must note all the time, the effort and the financial resources we had to devote to fending off this vindictive suit. At least Éditions Québec Amerique has been ordered to pay legal costs for the past ten years, which are substantial.”