A trial has been scheduled to start April 7, 2008, in a lawsuit in Texas pitting Heritage Numismatic Auctions, Inc., against one of its competitors, Superior Galleries, Inc.
At issue is Heritage?s claim that Superior infringed on Heritage?s copyrighted coin descriptions from its catalogs.
Heritage, located in Dallas, Texas, filed the civil action Nov. 7, 2006, in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division.
Heritage claims that Superior copied descriptions of coins and used them to describe similar, but different, coins, and in some cases, entirely different coins. Descriptions included identifying features, grade, color and detailed description of the condition and history of the coin or currency.?
Heritage President Steve Ivy said, ?Heritage prides itself on the quality of the experts it hires, its deep numismatic knowledge and experience, and the excellence of our auction support material, including our catalogs, which have won countless awards from some of the industry?s leading organizations. For anyone to routinely copy our hard work is commercially unfair.?
Superior?s response to the lawsuit dated Jan. 8, 2007, denies wrongdoing and it also filed a countersuit alleging that Heritage?s actions are taken to suppress competition.
On Jan. 8, 2007, Superior answered Heritage?s filing. The response stated that while Heritage filed copyright applications on certain descriptions, it said the material is not copyrightable under U.S. law.
