Coleman v. Retina Consultants, P.C.

Retina Consultants, P.C., does business under the name The Retina Eye Center (TREC) and will be referred to here as TREC.

As its name indicates, TREC is a medical practice specializing in retina surgery. In 2000, TREC hired Brendan Coleman as a

software engineer. Prior to his employment by TREC, Coleman wrote and marketed a medical billing program called Clinex.

While employed by TREC, Coleman, with the assistance of the doctors who worked for TREC, modifi ed the Clinex program to

suit TREC's specifi c business and developed an integrated retinal practice computer application called Clinex-RE. Clinex-RE

is a software program that integrates electronic medical records and image storage with a billing software component. Clinex

and Clinex-RE are different programs, and Clinex-RE only works in conjunction with Clinex. In order to develop Clinex-RE,

Coleman incorporated into his Clinex program certain proprietary information and trade secrets of TREC.

In 2003, Coleman and TREC entered into a Software Agreement that allocated the rights to Clinex and Clinex-RE between

TREC and Coleman. Although the Software Agreement stated that Coleman owns Clinex and that TREC only had a nonexclusive

license to use and sell Clinex, Paragraph 8 of the agreement provided that "Coleman will not distribute, vend or license to

any ophthalmologist or optometrist the Clinex software or any computer application competitive with the Clinex-RE software

without the written consent of TREC."

Prior to ending his employment relationship with TREC in 2008, Coleman developed encryption keys that were required

for the installation of the Clinex-RE package (i.e., Clinex as integrated with Clinex-RE) on any computer in TREC's offi ce and

that were necessary for the program to work properly. After the parties' employment relationship ended, TREC sued Coleman

in a Georgia court for breach of the Software Agreement and for misappropriation of trade secrets. TREC allegedand the

trial court later found-that, after his resignation, Coleman removed all applicable encryption keys and source and access codes

along with any manual/installation instructions; attempted to distribute, vend, or license to other ophthalmologists the Clinex

and Clinex-RE software; refused to disclose to TREC the passwords required to read and revise copies of the Clinex and Clinex-

RE software; refused to provide copies to TREC of all documentation in his possession and control relating to the programming

and use of the software; refused to return to TREC copies of the Clinex-RE software; and used or attempted to use TREC's

proprietary information and trade secrets to compete with TREC.

The trial court issued an injunction in favor of TREC and against Coleman. The injunction purported to enforce the Software

Agreement and in particular the noncompetition provision in its Paragraph 8. The injunction further prohibited Coleman from

"continuing to retain and use any applicable encryption keys, access codes, source codes and the multiple copies of manual/

installation instructions," from "retaining any passwords required to read and to revise copies of the Clinex and Clinex-RE

software," and from "retaining copies of all documentation in his possession or control relating to the programming and use

of the Clinex and Clinex-RE software." Coleman appealed to the Supreme Court of Georgia.

1) FACTS? (Summary of the case)

2) ISSUE? (Legal issue, a question i.g "Did he violate an agreement?")

3) RULE? (What is the law? e.g. Negligence rule - Duty, Breach, Causation, Damages)

4) CONCLUSION? (Applying the 'ISSUE' by 'RULE')