Campaigntrack Pty Ltd v Real Estate Tool Box Pty Ltd

Campaigntrack Pty Ltd (the applicant) brought a case against Real Estate Tool Box Pty Ltd (the first respondent), and others (the second to fifth respondents) in the Federal Court of Australia. The applicant claimed that the respondents had infringed its copyright in certain works, misused confidential information, and breached contractual obligations. The works in question were the source code, database, database tables, menu, and PDF files of a cloud-based real estate marketing software called DreamDesk. The applicant sought an injunction, damages, and an account of profits.

The court had to determine whether copyright subsisted in the source code, database, database tables, menu, and PDF files of the DreamDesk software, and whether the applicant owned the copyright. The court also had to decide if the respondents had infringed the copyright, misused confidential information, and breached contractual obligations. The court found that the third respondent had infringed copyright in some of the alleged works, and had also misused confidential information. However, the court found that the fourth and fifth respondents had breached the terms of the contract requiring passwords to be provided on payment of the purchase price and that the software would not be modified after it was transferred to the applicant. The court found that the breach of undertakings was not made out.

The court held that copyright subsisted in the source code, database, database tables, menu, and PDF files of the DreamDesk software, and that the applicant owned the copyright. The court held that the third respondent had infringed copyright in the source code, database, database tables, menu, and PDF files of the DreamDesk software, and had also misused confidential information. The court held that the fourth and fifth respondents had breached the terms of the contract, but found that the breach of undertakings was not made out. The court held that the breaches of contract were not capable of falling within the terms of the undertaking.

The court made an order that all issues of liability be determined separately from and before issues of quantum. The parties were required to confer with a view to agreeing orders to give effect to these reasons for judgment and for the further case management of the proceedings. The parties were required to provide within 14 days agreed orders giving effect to these reasons for judgment and for the further case management of the proceedings. Entry of orders was dealt with in Rule 39.32 of the Federal Court Rules 2011.