IP Law Daily, COPYRIGHT NEWS: Old school versus new school in a battle of school board associations, (Sep 23, 2024)

By Matthew Hersh, J.D.

A private school board association claims that a splinter group made off with its policy manual.

A newly-created private school board association in Arizona purloined the policy manual of another school board association and used it to recruit away school districts, a new federal lawsuit claims. The lawsuit, filed in the Phoenix federal court, alleges that the upstart association infringed on the copyright of its venerable competitor and tortiously interfered with its contracts with local school districts (Arizona School Boards Association, Inc. v. Copper State Education Alliance, Inc., No. 2:24-cv-02502-SPL (D. Ariz. Sept. 19, 2024)).

The lawsuit is a dispute between two Arizona school board associations—one that has been around for five decades and one that has only newly been created. The Arizona School Boards Association is a nonprofit corporation formed in 1974 that provides a variety of support services to its member school districts. The Copper State Education Alliance is a splinter group that has just begun operating as a competitor. Its chief executive offer, Devin Del Palacio, fulfilled the same role for the ASBA until he took over at Copper State in December 2023.

The document at the core of the lawsuit is the ASBA Model Policy, an 1100-page policy manual that contains publicly available Arizona state and federal statutes and regulations along with ASBA original policy content. Creation of the manual, the complaint asserts, was a “herculean task” that required “painstaking review and analysis of often complex Arizona state and federal laws and regulations.” The result of that work, the complaint asserts, is “the creation of original content policy recommendations, compiled with the applicable Arizona state and federal laws and regulations in a readable and usable format that can be readily adopted and implemented by ASBA member school districts.”

The trouble between the two organizations began not long after the Creighton Elementary School District, a K-8 school district in East-Central Phoenix, left the ASBA to join Copper State. In the summer of this year, the complaint asserts, the ASBA discovered that Creighton had posted substantial portions of the manual on its website and then formally adopted the manual at a school board meeting. Copper State provided the manual to the school district, the complaint asserts, and even led the school board meeting at which the policy was adopted. Despite multiple cease-and-desist letters and follow-up negotiations, the complaint asserts, Copper State refused to take down the manual from its internal website.

The complaint asserts that Copper State willfully infringed its copyright in the policy manual and demands actual damages or, in the alternative, statutory damages up to $150,000. The lawsuit also claims that Copper State tortiously interfered with ASBA’s contract with Creighton because it recruited Creighton, at least in part, by its use of the manual. ASBA also sought award damages in the amount of the renewal revenue of Creighton’s policy services subscription in an amount not less than $5,000 as well as attorneys’ fees and costs for Copper State’s willful conduct.

The Case is No. 2:24-cv-02502-SPL.

Attorneys: Dennis Frederick Esford (Windy City Trial Group, Inc.) for Arizona School Boards Association Inc.

Companies: Arizona School Boards Association Inc.; Copper State Education Alliance Inc.

News: Copyright ArizonaNews GCNNews