by PegNews wire

Federal permanent injunction prevents unauthorized use of copyrighted material.

DALLAS — Dallas-based Gordon Publications (GOPUBCO) is announcing the settlement of a federal lawsuit against Your Town Yellow Pages of Carrollton, Tex., and the issuance of a federal permanent injunction that protects GOPUBCO's copyrighted telephone directory advertisements.

The original lawsuit was filed in March 2006 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. In the claim, GOPUBCO asserted that Your Town published telephone directories containing identical reproductions of advertisements and substantial portions of other advertisements that originally appeared in directories previously published by GOPUBCO.

Photo not provided by Gordon Publications

Let this be a warning to all yellow pages firms lookin' for copyrighted trouble

As part of the dismissal order entered by Federal Judge Ed Kinkeade on Aug. 2, Your Town is prevented from reproducing or distributing to the public any products that infringe on GOPUBCO's copyrighted yellow page advertisements. Under the terms of the settlement, Your Town also agreed to provide GOPUBCO with an undisclosed financial settlement.

"GOPUBCO views the permanent injunction entered by the court and the agreement to provide our company with a financial settlement as vindication of our position," says Jeff Stalker, Director of Operations for GOPUBCO.

"We hope the resolution of this case serves as stern warning that GOPUBCO will not tolerate the infringement of our valuable copyrighted material," says Karen Gordon, President of GOPUBCO.

According to the lawsuit, GOPUBCO relied on its in-house graphic arts department and outside contractors to produce copyrighted advertisements in the company's popular local telephone directories. In February 2006, executives from GOPUBCO discovered identical advertisements and substantial portions of other GOPUBCO advertisements that were republished in competing telephone directories published by Your Town.

Source: Gordon Publications