US District Judge Terry Hatter has thought better of his ruling that Ashton-Tate Corp is not entitled to claim copyright on its dBase database products. Ashton had filed a motion for reconsideration of Hatter’s order in December; the judge originally denied the motion, but last week amended his order and rescinded the previous ruling. The decision came in Ashton-Tate’s suit against Fox Software Inc of November 1988 alleging that FoxBase+ and FoxPro infringe dBase copyrights. Hatter originally ruled the copyright invalid on grounds that Ashton had not disclosed prior art, but the US Register of Copyrights independently filed a declaration supporting Ashton-Tate’s position and saying the company had followed the proper copyright registration procedure. The new ruling does not affirm or deny the copyright and the Fox suit proceeds.
