In an October 4, 2010 decision by Justice Emerson, the Court granted a preliminary injunction to a software distributor enjoining the termination of a software licensing agreement. The software in question was developed by an Israeli’s company and licensed to a New York company for marketing, licensing and distribution. The parties entered into an initial agreement a number of amendments to include additional software. Pursuant to the initial agreement and each of the amendments if an agreement was to be terminated the party terminating the license had to specify which specific agreement and/or amendment was being terminated.
The software developer terminated the licenses and the New York distributor filed suit seeking a preliminary injunction barring the developer from enforcing the termination of the agreements. Before addressing the merits of the preliminary injunction motion, the Court found that the Israeli company was properly served with process pursuant to the Hague Convention and denied the developers motion to dismiss.
As to the preliminary injunction, the Court found that the developer had properly terminated two of the three software licenses in question because it had not referenced one of the agreements in its termination notice. Therefore, the Court granted the preliminary injunction as to that one program, finding that the New York distributor had demonstrated likelihood of success and irreparable harm.