The Court of Appeal has dismissed a US software company's claim against Fisher & Paykel Finance, including for breach of copyright.
The dispute, between San Francisco-based Karum Group and FPF, has been before the courts for eight years and had its genesis in the New Zealand firm purchasing another company called Retail Financial Services in 2004.
FPF, a subsidiary Fisher & Paykel Appliances which operates the Farmers store card and Q card, assumed this firm owned its own credit-management system software - called CMS - but it infact had used it for ten years under licence from Karum Group.
Karum claimed FPF was operating this software without a license and issued High Court action but the parties reach an agreement where FPF would pay fees while it developed its own software system.
When the licence expired, Karum moved to cancel the agreement because of alleged misrepresentations by FPF. It issued High Court proceedings seeking declaration of valid cancellation of the settlement and damages.