A $25 million defamation suit between Vancouver’s Destiny Media Technologies Inc. (TSX:DSY) and Yangaroo Inc. (TSX-V:YOO) is heading to trial, but the companies are at odds regarding a January 20 judgment.
On Friday, Destiny, which specializes in music distribution technology, announced a summary judgment win against Toronto-based Yangaroo in Ontario’s Superior Court.
The legal action dates back to 2007 when Destiny filed suit against Yangaroo, co-founder Clifford Hunt and John Heaven for defamation, injurious falsehood, breach of the Trademarks Act and Competition Act and interference with Destiny’s economic interests.
Yangaroo then filed a counterclaim with similar allegations against Destiny and its CEO Steve Vestergaard.
After that, the Vancouver company filed a motion to have Yangaroo’s counterclaim dismissed as “frivolous.”
On Friday, Destiny said an Ontario judge had dismissed much of Yangaroo’s counterclaim.
“This is the second major decision in our favour in our ongoing dispute with this regional competitor,” Vestergaard said in a release.
The battle between the companies dates back to 2006, when Destiny, which operated primarily in the U.S., entered the Yangaroo-dominated Canadian market.
Multiple court actions have ensued, but the original clash centred on who owned the patent rights for decryption and decoding processes in each company’s software (see “Destiny Media’s potential patent approval reignites rivalry with Toronto competitor” – issue 990, October 14 to 20, 2008.)
On Monday, Yangaroo released its own statement regarding the January 20 court decision, saying that the Ontario court had ruled in its favour by allowing some parts of its counterclaim to proceed to trial, although other parts had been dismissed.
Vestergaard told Business in Vancouver a trial date had yet to be determined, but the company is looking forward to putting an end to nearly five years of litigation.
Said Vestergaard: “As vicious as it is in the press, behind the scenes everybody wants to make this go away.”