U.S. District Court Judge M. James Lorenz of the Southern District of California issued a summary judgment May 10 against the library automation firm EOS International, among others, for allegedly plagiarizing from Questionable Doctors, an occasional publication of the watchdog group Public Citizen, part of EOSI’s Medi-Net database of licensed physicians. Filed in April 1999, the case will go before a jury to determine damages.
According to court documents, in 1996 Medi-Net Manager of Health Information Richard Schiff alerted Dr. Nick Soldo, a physician who conceived the Medi-Net concept with Schiff, to the suspected infringement, which Lorenz described as “virtually verbatim copying of plaintiff’s work.”
Schiff, who left EOSI in July 1999, filed a wrongful termination suit the following September, several weeks after EOSI attorney Charles M. Stern wrote him that his whistle-blowing constituted an “unauthorized and improper disclosure of confidential Medi-Net information” and demanding reimbursement of $45,173 in legal fees. In turn, EOSI has sued Schiff for violating his employee confidentiality agreement.
Posted May 15, 2000.