Cassetica Software, Inc. v. Computer Sciences Corp., No. 09 C 0003, Slip Op. (N.D. Ill. Jun. 18, 2009) (Kendall, J.).

Judge Kendall granted defendant CSC’s Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss.  Plaintiff Cassetica asserted patent infringement, breach of contract, violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act ("CFAA"), and related state law claims based upon CSC’s alleged continued use of Cassetica’s NotesMedic software after the end the parties’ contract for the software.  The Court dismissed each claim as follows:

• Copyright Infringement:  Cassetica’s copyright claim was dismissed because Cassetica could not recover its claimed statutory damages.  Cassetica registered its copyright after CSC’s alleged infringement began.  It did not matter that CSC’s alleged infringement allegedly continued after the registration.
• Breach of Contract:  Because CSC’s alleged breach occurred after the contract terminated there was no longer a contract to be breached and, therefore, no claim.
• CFAA:  There was no "damage" as defined by the CFAA.  The CFAA defines damages as harm to a computer system’s data.  But Cassetica alleged copying of electronic information, not that any of its data was lost or harmed.  Otherwise, Cassetica only made bare allegations that its data was harmed without any factual statement.
• Other State Law Claims:  Cassetica’s conversion, trespass to chattels and unjust enrichment claims were all preempted by the copyright law because each state law claim was based upon the alleged downloads of the NotesMedic software.