Earlier this summer, three of the country’s largest college textbook publishers filed a lawsuit against Follett Corp. charging the company with selling counterfeit textbooks. Publishers Weekly brought this news to our attention in their article, “Publishers Charge Follett with Selling Counterfeit Texts.”
The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York by Cengage, McGraw-Hill Education, and Pearson Education. The complaint claims Follett engaged in copyright and trademark infringement, as well as trademark counterfeiting.
Follett responded to the lawsuit by indicating the suit was intended to drastically limit the the campus store’s ability to provide low-cost course material options, which would force students into buying higher-priced textbooks directly from the publishers.
The suit is asking the court to issue an injunction preventing Follett from further copyright and trademark infringement. The suit also asks that Follett turn over to the publishers any profits earned from the sale of counterfeit textbooks.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Data Harmony, a unit of Access Innovations, the world leader in indexing and making content findable.
