18 Jun Court slaps UNIK with $1M penalty for unauthorized software distribution
Wauwatosa, Wis. – In a final ruling handed down by the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Acuity Mutual Insurance of Sheboygan must pay a nearly $1 million claim owed by UNIK Associates of Wauwatosa to Symantec Corp., according to a report in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Earlier, UNIK had been ordered by a Federal Court in Oregon to pay more than $958,000 to Symantec for unauthorized distribution of some software programs owned by the Cupertino Calif.-based firm, including several Norton security applications.
Lower courts in Wisconsin, including the Waukesha County Circuit Court and the Second Circuit Wisconsin Court of Appeals in Waukesha, also had ruled against UNIK.
Acuity, which provided UNIK with business insurance, had claimed it was not responsible for paying the judgment because UNIK had not engaged in advertising, but the Supreme Court agreed that it had engaged in advertising that damaged Symantec.