Court upholds GEO PRO’s claim for copyright infringement and protection of geospatial information

Riga Regional Court has delivered a favourable verdict in favour of GEO PRO SIA in the case against Daugavpils satiksme SIA (a municipal capital company) concerning copyright infringement and the recovery of material compensation.

During the proceedings, COBALT successfully demonstrated that Daugavpils satiksme committed copyright infringement by reproducing GEO PRO’s topographic plans in .dwg format files and transferring them to third parties without the plaintiff’s permission. The court held that the topographic plans, prior to their coordination and inclusion in the centralised database, constitute a wholly original creative expression by the surveyor in a visual technical format. This finding underpinned the conclusion that the topographic plans developed by GEO PRO qualify as copyright-protected works.

“We are pleased with the favourable outcome of the second instance proceedings as well as the court’s conclusions regarding the protection of geospatial information data from a copyright perspective. The industry continues to witness blatant copyright violations directly by tenderers in both public and private procurement contexts, so we hope that this court ruling will provide the necessary incentive to improve the overall protection of geospatial information by establishing clear rules of the game for all market participants,” commented Senior Associate Jānis Sarāns-Reneslācis.

The Riga Regional Court fully upheld COBALT client’s claim and ordered Daugavpils satiksme to pay compensation calculated according to the licence fee method, as well as litigation costs.

The client was represented in the case by COBALT’s Senior Associate Jānis Sarāns-Reneslācis.