At the end of last year, we shared two news items here on the blog about the lawsuit filed by Rambler regarding Nginx, in which criminal proceedings were initiated against former Rambler employees who developed Nginx under Part 3 of Article 146 of the Penal Code ("Violation of copyright and related rights").
The accusation was based on the claim that the development of Nginx was carried out during the working hours of Rambler employees and on behalf of the company's leadership.
During the development of nginx, Igor Sysoev worked at Rambler as a system administrator, not as a programmer and he worked on his project as a hobby, and not as indicated by his superiors.
According to Igor Ashmanov , who was one of Rambler's leaders at the time, when he hired Sysoev , he specifically agreed to the opportunity to participate in his project. Furthermore, the system administrator's duties did not include software development.
Rambler asserts that the employment contract stipulates that the employer retains exclusive rights to developments made by company employees. The resolution filed by law enforcement officials indicates that nginx is Rambler's intellectual property, which was illegally distributed as a free product without Rambler's knowledge and as part of a criminal intent.
Following a raid on Nginx's offices, the arrest of employees, and the ensuing legal proceedings, the entire process was heavily criticized in Russia by several high-ranking officials, including a chief of staff who argued that after 15 years , the statute of limitations for filing a copyright infringement complaint had expired.
Up to that point, it seemed that all attempts by the Rambler Group to acquire the intellectual property rights of Nginx had come to an end , as several Rambler directors decided to sever ties with the law firm Lynwood Investments, withdraw their application to law enforcement agencies, and request the termination of the criminal case against NGINX employees.
And now, six months later, things are back to normal as the law firm Lynwood Investments will no longer attempt to pursue the case through the Russian Federation's law enforcement agencies, acting on behalf of the Rambler Group.
Instead, it has now filed a lawsuit in the United States against F5 Networks regarding the claim of exclusive rights to Nginx. The lawsuit was filed in San Francisco in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.
Igor Sysoev and Maxim Konovalov, as well as the investment funds Runa Capital and E.Ventures, are listed as co-defendants in the lawsuit. The amount of damages is estimated at $750 million (by comparison, Nginx was sold to F5 Networks for $650 million). The lawsuit affects both the NGINX server and the commercial software NGINX Plus, which is based on it.
F5 Networks considers the plaintiff's claims to be unfounded, including the reference to the decision by the Russian prosecutor's office, which ended the investigation without finding evidence of guilt on the part of the Nginx co-founders.
F5 Networks attorneys are convinced that the accusations of the defendants in the US-led trial are equally unfounded.
Interestingly, in April, the Rambler Group announced the termination of the contract with Lynwood Investments and a ban on doing business on behalf of the Rambler Group.
At the same time, Lynwood Investments retained the right to prove losses in the NGINX case and to claim compensation in its own name and for its own benefit.
The English press release provides further details under which Lynwood and its affiliates owned a substantial portion of Rambler and Rambler transferred ownership of NGINX to Lynwood. The transfer of rights was approved by the Rambler Board of Directors.
Source: https://www.prnewswire.com