Excellent comment. Short and directly to the point.

What is the basis for this suit? Last time I checked ‘building a better mouse trap’ is not illegal.

They are not accusing GMU of violating any ‘Imaginary Property’ laws?

Since when has “willfully and intentionally destroying [a] customer base” become actionable? I thought such activity was called competition.

Apparently the legal geniuses (IMO rabid weasels) don’t remember any of the spreadsheet litigation in the 80’s such as Visicalc v Lotus and Lotus v everybody. In those actions the defendants were accused of Copyright infringement although it was really User Interface cloning and the ability to read files. The courts decided that, except under certain very limited conditions, UI design is not protected by by Copyright.

And as far as reading files, there is a clause somewhere in USC Title 17 that clearly states that computer file formats are not protected by Copyright. If this were not so, Microsoft would have sued Star Division (StarOffice), Sun (StarOffice), and OpenOffice long ago.

IMNSHO, this is vexatious litigation and should be sanctioned as such.

Disclaimer: IANAL and this is not legal advice. Anyone taking legal advice from a Silly Ratfaced Git probably needs help other than legal.

SRG