Burns & Levinson's Stephen Chow
TestMasters agrees to pay more than $1M to settle dispute over LSAT license
September 21, 2009
The Law School Admissions Council, which administers the Law School Admissions Test, has settled its copyright infringement and breach-of-contract case against test prep company TestMasters for more than $1 million. TestMasters will also pay the council's attorney fees up to $150,000.
The Sept. 4 suit filed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, The Law School Admissions Council Inc. v. Robin Singh Educational Services Inc. d.b.a. TestMasters, accused TestMasters of unauthorized use of the council's LSAT test materials. The parties reached the settlement on Sept. 16 and filed a consent order on Sept. 17.
In an e-mail to the National Law Journal, TestMasters programs director Irina Lymar said TestMasters has paid the council the full $1,047,490 it owed under the previous license and signed a new license with the council.
Lymar's e-mail also said that TestMasters "is not and has never been opposed to" paying the council for the right to use authentic LSAT questions. Rather, TestMasters did not want to pay licensing fees if its competitors and other third parties were not paying them.
"The licensing fees are considerable, and fairness dictates that if TestMasters should pay, then everyone else should also pay," stated Lymar's e-mail. "We are happy that we were able to reach an amicable resolution to this matter."
Andrew Whitney, an associate in the Philadelphia office of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius who helped represent the Law School Admissions Council in the case, referred questions to the council.
Council spokeswoman Wendy Margolis sent a copy of the settlement agreement to the National Law Journal, but said the organization had no further comment.
According to the settlement agreement, if TestMasters breaches the license payment terms going forward, it must pay the balance of licensing fees, stop using the council's materials and remove statements from its Web site and promotional documents indicating that TestMasters is authorized to use the council's materials. If the council seeks a legal injunction to enforce its rights under the settlement, the deal calls for TestMasters to pay its legal fees and costs.
Settlement agreement terms that call for such tough repercussions are pretty standard, said Stephen Chow a partner in the intellectual property/sci tech practice at Boston-based Burns & Levinson, who isn't involved in the case. "If you breach anything, you admit to [causing] irreparable injury," Chow said. The idea is that there's not as much of an opportunity to cure any breaches. It's pretty standard."
West Publishing Corp.'s BAR/BRI bar review business and parent company Thomson Corp settled similar claims with the North Carolina Board of Law Examiners in 2008. North Carolina's board accused BAR/BRI of publishing and selling the board's copyrighted testing materials in its Eastern District of North Carolina lawsuit.
Sheri Qualters can be contacted at sheri.qualters@incisivemedia.com.
Most Popular Headlines
- Top ABA staffers exit amid reorganization
- Daschle departing Alston for DLA Piper
- Unanimous 7th Circuit finds mezuzah removal worth a lawsuit
- Employers unsure about medical marijuana
- Obama shakes up counsel's office
- The 2009 NLJ 250
- New approaches to law firm recruitment
- Hasan case to test military justice system
- 'He had the ability to do anything'
- No quiet time for new justice
