On May 5, a multidisciplinary team from the Tucker Ellis IP Litigation, Health & Life Sciences, Bankruptcy, and Appellate & Legal Issues practice groups obtained two complete appellate victories in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit for client Boehringer Ingelheim (Boehringer) in a decade-old copyright lawsuit and a related bankruptcy proceeding.

The copyright case began in 2014 with a family dispute over compensation between members of the Burri family who owned WRI – a fulfillment services company located in St. Joseph, Missouri. The private family dispute erupted into a protracted copyright lawsuit when plaintiff Breht Burri and his website service company InfoDeli sued his family’s company WRI, other members of the Burri family, and WRI customers Boehringer and Ceva, after WRI fired InfoDeli and hired a replacement website service provider, Engage Mobile. The defendants challenged the copyrightability of the data allegedly copied, arguing that the arrangements were not minimally creative under the U.S. Supreme Court’s standard in Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co., 499 U.S. 340 (1991). The District Court agreed, granting summary judgment to the defendants in 2017. The remaining state law claims proceeded to a jury trial in March 2020, where the defendants obtained a complete defense verdict. Between 2020 and 2024, various appeals proceeded through a variety of procedural steps until September 2024, when Chad Eggspuehler argued the copyright appeals on behalf of all defendants. On May 5, 2025, the Court of Appeals affirmed in full, including an award of $1.7 million in attorneys’ fees to defendants – including Boehringer – under the Copyright Act.

In 2019 – in the middle of the copyright case – WRI filed for bankruptcy, and, in 2021, it initiated a multimillion-dollar bankruptcy adversary proceeding against Boehringer and Ceva, who responded with an array of counterclaims and defenses. WRI settled the adversary proceeding with Boehringer and Ceva, who agreed to make de minimis cash payments and to waive their counterclaims. Infodeli objected to the settlement, but the Bankruptcy Court overruled the objection and approved it. Tom Fawkes successfully argued the bankruptcy appeal on behalf of all the settling parties in September 2024. On May 5, 2025, the Court of Appeals affirmed.

The Tucker Ellis team defending the copyright lawsuit included Nick Clifford, Kelly Baldini, Chad Eggspuehler, and Ben Sassé, and the bankruptcy team included Tom Fawkes and Nick Clifford.

Read more in the Eighth Circuit opinions for Case No. 20-2146 and Case No. 23-3323.