Symantec wins £700k in counterfeit-software case

Symantec has landed £700,000 in costs and damages after the High Court found an Essex software company had been dealing in 35,000 counterfeit copies of PC Anywhere.

The settlement is the largest award Symantec has received in a counterfeit-software case in the UK and Europe, the company said in an statement announcing the award on Wednesday.

In addition to awarding the damages, the High Court in London issued an order in April preventing defendants Robert Waterman and Nusoft Trading Limited from dealing in counterfeited Symantec products in the future and obliged them to provide details of others involved in supplying and manufacturing the fake software.

Should any of the information prove "faulty or inaccurate", or if they once again deal in counterfeit Symantec software, the defendants are liable to pay another £1m to the software company.

The information resulting from the case so far has already helped Symantec get settlements from several other companies involved in dealing in the fake software, "including a German replicator", the company said. More investigations are currently ongoing, a Symantec spokesperson told ZDNet.co.uk. The spokesperson declined to provide any further details as "we don't want to tip our hat to the people involved".

According to Symantec's spokesperson, the counterfeit software was first uncovered through the work of its six-year-old brand protection taskforce, a team of investigators and lawyers who investigate suggested instances of software counterfeiting and protect the company's intellectual property.