Background:
ECIMOS sold software and assembled hardware that enabled quality-control testing of Carrier Corporation HVAC units and provided Carrier Corporation with database storage for the test results. A license granted to Carrier Corporation by ECIMOS for the software included the use of the database-script source code (database code) and the software-scripting language source code (software code).
- However, the license provided that Carrier Corporation could not copy, reverse engineer, distribute, or create derivative works based on the software. ECIMOS developed more than 27 Million lines of program code for the HVAC/R Industry and marketed it as the HVAC/R Integrated Process Control System (IPCS).
- The IPCS assembled hardware also manufactured by ECIMOS occupies over 20,000 square feet of the Collierville, TN facility.
- The IPCS tests 5000 Air Conditioners per day during peak season at Carrier Corporation. The IPCS Packouttm Watchdog prohibits the shipping of non-conforming and unsafe Air Conditioners to its customers.
Court Case: ECIMOS, LLC vs. Carrier Global
Air conditioner manufacturer giant, Carrier Corporation, wrongs small business ECIMOS, by improperly using and stealing their software. Even after a three-year-old court ruling finding Carrier Corporation guilty and prohibiting them from using ECIMOS software, Carrier Corporation now faces an ECIMOS criminal contempt filing for ongoing defiance of court orders that protect ECIMOS Intellectual Property.
Carrier Corporation has had a longstanding relationship of almost 30 years leveraging ECIMOS’ testing software, but come 2011, Carrier Corporation breached their contract and was sued for software theft, breach of contract, and misappropriation of trade secrets.
Carrier Corporation informed the court that it would need relief for only 90 to 120 days to comply beginning on August 10, 2018, and the Court obliged and did provide relief but not for 120 days but all the way till August 17, 2020, a full 2 years later. During those 2 years of relief Carrier Corporation had to pay ECIMOS a meager $ 50 per month per PC for a total of $ 3,000 per month to compensate ECIMOS for being forced to stand down.
The $ 50 per month is what ECIMOS charges its customers that are in good standing to use its software. That meager penalty was levied on Carrier Corporation even though it reported to the Jury that it had $ 247,500,000 of revenue each month of which the Jury determined ECIMOS would be due $ 333,333 for its software’s contribution to the nearly quarter of a billion dollars of revenue each month.
ECIMOS learned from Carrier Corporation counsel that its effort would continue “at its discretion”, undaunted by the Court’s prohibition, ECIMOS’s objections, and the financial losses to its investors.
Due to the ongoing profit that Carrier Corporation is making illegally at the expense of ECIMOS’ software, an additional motion is being filed for $14.66MM in profit disgorgement charges, given Carrier Corporation is now in arrears on $660MM in accumulated profit.