Harvard Business School Publishing Files Suit, Seeks Injunction Against Business Book Review; HBSP Claims Copyright Infringement of 26 HBS Press Books

Business Wire, Dec 12, 2001

Business Editors

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 12, 2001

Harvard Business School Publishing (HBSP) has filed suit in the United States District Court of Boston, Massachusetts against Business Book Review (BBR) of Decatur, Georgia for copyright infringement. Business Book Review currently publishes and sells 8-page summaries of 26 Harvard Business School Press (HBS Press) titles without HBSP's express permission. HBSP asserts that each BBR summary consists almost entirely of language taken directly from the original HBS Press book.

The suit names BBR, its President Jagdir Sheth, publisher John Fayed, and "book reviewer" Lydia Morris as defendants. HBSP seeks an injunction prohibiting the further publication and sale of unauthorized summaries of HBS Press books, an award of monetary damages as authorized by the Copyright Act, and attorneys' fees.

"Only the copyright owner has the right to sell a shortened version of its own book," said Allan A. Ryan, Director of Intellectual Property at HBSP. "Despite our demand that it stop, BBR is publishing summaries of our titles under the guise of book reviews - and is doing so without our permission Today we are asking the Federal Court to enjoin BBR, so that they will stop infringing our copyright."

Harvard Business School Publishing has identified 26 Harvard Business School Press books whose copyright BBR has infringed through the publication and sale of summaries. In court papers, HBSP presents a side-by-side comparison of original text from the best-selling book Serious Play by Michael Schrage, and BBR's summary. The comparison shows conclusively that BBR directly reproduces significant portions of the text under the guise of a "book review".

"The BBR summaries contain no significant analysis or criticism, and BBR adds virtually nothing of its own to the condensations it publishes," Ryan emphasized. "These are not bona fide reviews of our books," he said, "and they are not summaries of our books' content in a paragraph to let people know what we're publishing. This company takes eight pages of our authors' own words, packages it for sale with our authors' names, and sells it alongside a picture of the book itself. That's not only copyright infringement, it's a deceptive practice that misleads consumers into thinking that HBSP and our authors have approved or endorsed the summary, which we have not." The BBR summaries are sold via BBR's website and also at Amazon.com. The suit does not name Amazon.com as a defendant.

About Harvard Business School Publishing:

Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, Harvard Business School Publishing is a wholly-owned, not for profit subsidiary of Harvard University. HBSP publishes for the general, professional, and academic markets. Its offerings include the widely-respected Harvard Business Review, books from Harvard Business School Press, the newsletters Harvard Management Update, Harvard Management Communication Letter, and The Balanced Scorecard Report, a line of multimedia products for management development, videos, simulations, course books and cases. For more information, please visit our website at http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu.