GE says N.J. company promoting parts as its own

General Electric has filed a grievance against a New Jersey manufacturer for alleged copyright infringement.

GE brought suit last month against Sealed Unit Parts Co. for allegedly promoting GE appliance parts as their own on their website without permission. GE asserts that SUPCO neither designs nor sells the consumer appliances and parts in question and may have improperly represented a refrigerator main control board as its own invention.

GE maintains that its refrigerator firmware, written in the C programming language, was created and copyrighted in 2001; it also claims all subsequent improvements have been registered with the U.S. Copyright Office.

The plaintiff alleges that the data on a SUPCO Main Board refrigerator product is nearly 100 percent identical to their own microcontroller. GE seeks injunctive relief, actual and exemplary damages, attorneys’ fees, expenses and costs. The company is represented by Robert J. McAughan Jr. and Jeffrey A. Andrews of Sutton McAughan Deaver of Houston.

Marshall Division of the Eastern District of Texas case number 2:15-cv-00133-RWS-RSP