Federal Judge Denies Infogroup®’s Request for Preliminary Injunction against DatabaseUSA, Infofree.com, and AtoZ Databases
Judge John Gerrard rules against Infogroup® on all counts of their request
Omaha, NE (Marketwired – April 17, 2015) – The full 33 page judgement can be read here: www.databaseusa.com/lawsuit.
On the issue of improperly acquiring information from Infogroup’s proprietary databases, Judge Gerrard said, “Information from at least some of Infogroup’s seed files has been found in other competitors’ data and on public search engines… But there must be some showing, and here there is not: to the extent that Infogroup’s motion is focused on ‘webscraping,’ such conduct is not unlawful under Nebraska law.”
Additionally, the judge also noted that “But DatabaseUSA’s evidence pokes some holes in that theory. The information in Infogroup’s database is not wholly unavailable to the world at large – to begin with, while some data may come from private sources or Infogroup’s own information-gathering, a substantial amount of the data is compiled from publicly-available sources… DatabaseUSA’s evidence also casts a substantial doubt on whether any of the individual employee defendants could have obtained the data at issue. Three of the five individual defendants were terminated by Infogroup before the November 2011 seed data was inserted into the Infogroup database. Another was not hired by DatabaseUSA until after the June 2013 audit that discovered the seed data. And none of the former Infogroup employees (with the presumable exception of Gupta, who was out the door by 2008) had the necessary access to Infogroup’s database to have perpetrated a heist.”
Also, on the issue of engaging in false advertising, Judge Gerrard stated, “Because the Court finds that DatabaseUSA’s use of the word ‘verified’ is neither literally false, nor misleading in context, and that no tendency to deceive or actual deception has been shown, the Court finds that Infogroup has not shown a likelihood of succeeding on its claim.”
On the issue of the relationship between Mr. Gupta and Infogroup having been falsely represented and confusing customers, Judge Gerrard said, “And in this case, Gupta’s identification of himself as the founder of Infogroup and its associated entities is accurate – and Gupta is entitled to accurately describe his experience in the industry when marketing his company’s products and services… Nor, the court finds, has Infogroup sufficiently demonstrated actual confusion on the part of consumers. Infogroup’s evidence of confused consumers is, again, anecdotal at best.
Finally, on the issue of the “60 Minutes” video, Judge Gerrard stated, “Infogroup also contends that the ‘60 Minutes’ references, and description of DatabaseUSA as having been creating databases ‘since 1972,’ somehow supports its false association claim. Filing 81 at 16-17. But neither the ‘60 Minutes’ excerpts, nor the slogan, make any direct reference to Infogroup.”
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About Us:
Infofree.com™ is revolutionizing the sales lead and mailing list industry by providing unlimited search, select and view of over 14 million businesses, 250 million consumers and hundreds of other specialty databases for low, flat rates. Reach new homeowners, new movers, newlyweds, new businesses and much more at www.infofree.com.
DatabaseUSA.com provides high-quality, full service database and email marketing solutions to businesses and sales professionals. With over 200 years combined experience, the company is revolutionizing the way businesses find new prospects and grow their sales. DatabaseUSA.com proudly offers a 95% accurate, triple-verified database of mailing lists, email lists, and sales leads, as well as direct mail, database enhancements, and many other marketing and sales lead services.
AtoZdatabases, powered by DatabaseUSA.com, is a leading provider of job searches, reference, and marketing databases for public libraries, academic institutions, and government agencies across the United States.
