Court Dismisses Yangaroo Counterclaims in Defamation
Case
VANCOUVER, Jan. 21 /PRNewswire/ - Destiny Media
Technologies, Inc. (DSY-TSX, DSNY-OTCBB), is pleased to
announce progress in its lawsuit against Yangaroo, John Heaven and
Clifford Hunt filed May 4, 2007. Destiny had claimed
CDN$25,000,000 in damages for defamation and injurious falsehood,
breaches of the Trademarks Act and Competition Act, and interfering
with Destiny's economic interests. Yangaroo had filed a
counterclaim with similar allegations against Destiny Media and
Destiny's CEO, Steve Vestergaard.
Destiny filed a motion to have the counterclaim
dismissed in its entirety as frivolous and the motion was heard in
court on October 28th, 2010. On Jan. 20, 2011, Mr.
Justice Stanley Kershman announced his verdict. Summary judgment
was granted in favour of Destiny in respect of the torts of
injurious falsehood and interference with economic relations.
Additionally, summary judgment was granted in respect of all claims
brought against Mr. Vestergaard in his personal capacity.
The judge also added that, in his view, many of
the statements made by Destiny that Yangaroo counterclaimed for
were clearly either not defamatory or were justified based upon the
evidence filed in the motion. He names a number of statements
in his ruling that cannot be fairly characterized as "false or
misleading" citing statements that Destiny's system predates
Yangaroo's patent and that MPE does not have the essential features
necessary to infringe on Yangaroo's patent.
Destiny CEO, Steve Vestergaard reflects on the
lawsuit win, "We are pleased that after looking at the evidence,
the judge was able to dismiss so much of Yangaroo's
counterclaim. This is the second major decision in our favor
in our ongoing dispute with this regional competitor. In June
2010, Destiny successfully won a fast track motion to dismiss a
frivolous patent infringement case."
Destiny's $25 million claim against Yangaroo
remains unchanged and will proceed to trial.
About Destiny Media Technologies
Destiny Media (http://www.dsny.com) is the developer of the Play
MPE® system (http://www.plaympe.com) which the recording industry
uses to securely distribute new pre-release music through the
internet to trusted recipients such as radio, media and
VIP's. Real time usage statistics are available at
http://www.plaympe.com/v4/company/plaympestats.php and a product
overview is available at http://www.dsny.com/pres/index.htm
SOURCE Destiny Media Technologies, Inc.
Copyright . 21 PR Newswire
