Opinion ID: 3053020
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Programs

Text: Specifically at issue are the six programs that Gagnon created for AMS. He included a copyright notice, “copyright Mister Computer,” in the splash screens for each program. According to a declaration by one of Gagnon’s former employees, the programs were designed to work with AMS’s databases and included “detailed information concerning AMS’ network of sales persons, including information related to AMS’ agent lists, their territories, and the criteria used by AMS to qualify an agent or create a territory.” The source code for these programs was installed on several of AMS’s development computers, which were located at AMS’s facilities.2 The employee was not instructed by Gagnon to maintain 2 Gagnon disputes that the source code was ever stored on the AMS server. ASSET MARKETING v. GAGNON 12521 the source code at any location other than AMS, and Gagnon made no attempt to hide the source code from AMS employees. In his deposition, Gagnon admitted that after he hired employees, the source code was stored on AMS computers in the development room. The room could not be accessed without a pass that Gagnon’s software developers and a few key AMS personnel, including Akerstein, possessed. Gagnon never received any promises of confidentiality with respect to his trade secrets from the AMS personnel who had passes to the development room nor did he discuss terms of a potential license or royalty agreement with them. A week prior to his termination, Gagnon registered the copyright for these six programs with the United States Copyright Office.