Symantec Wins $1 Million in Piracy Case

Security vendor Symantec has been awarded more than $1 million in restitution from a reseller who pled guilty to trademark infringement for pirating the company's software.

The judgment, handed down Wednesday by Judge J. Michael Wilkinson of the 179th District Court of Harris County, Texas, caps a year-long investigation by the Houston Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation into the activities of the reseller, Li Chen, and his Houston-based business, Microsource International.

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The case, prosecuted by the office of Harris County District Attorney Kate Dolan, resulted from information uncovered in a probe by Symantec Corp. and other software companies into Chen's activities.

Chen pled guilty to one count of trademark infringement and agreed to the restitution as part of a plea bargain.

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Investigators seized 5,100 units of counterfeit Symantec software from Microsource after serving a search warrant in November of last year.

Investigators also found documents revealing that Chen sold pirated Symantec software from April 2002 to October 2004 with a retail value of nearly $10 million.

"Symantec is committed to vigorously battling software piracy and protecting the interests of our customers. This case was helped significantly by customers who sent samples of counterfeit software to Symantec's Brand Protection Task Force," William Baird, Symantec's Global Investigations manager, said in a released statement.

Symantec said the Chen case was one of several the company has won in its fight against software piracy. In the last two years, the vendor has collected more than $19.5 million in damages from various software piracy cases.

"The successful prosecution of this case has made a significant impact on constricting the supply of counterfeit Symantec software available in North America," said Baird.