Court Opinion

ID: 9498198
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 17:10:46.038151+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:58:40.900614
License: Public Domain

R. GUY COLE, Jr., Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I disagree with the majority’s conclusion that the jury could have reasonably concluded that MGI had effectively misappropriated the source code in its entirety. To the contrary, the undisputed evidence on both sides showed that MGI copied only portions of the code necessary to effect the conversion program. Nonetheless, we are required to view the jury’s award in the light most favorable to the awardee. Gregory v. Shelby County, 220 F.3d 433, 443 (6th Cir.2000). It could very well be the case that the jury believed that MGI copied the only valuable portions of the code, and that the remainder of the MMCS code effectively had little to no value. There is no way to divine if this is what the jury believed or if it is in fact the case that the copied portions were the only valuable portions of the code. However, because we may not remit a jury award “unless it is beyond the maximum damages that the jury reasonably could find to be compensatory for a party’s loss,” Jackson v. City of Cookeville, 31 F.3d 1354, 1359 (6th Cir.1994) (citations omitted), I would conclude that the jury reasonably determined that the limited portions of the code misappropriated by MGI were the only valuable portions of the code at issue, and based their award on this conclusion. I thus concur in the result reached by the majority, affirming the award below.