Westbourne International Obtains Injunction Against Arrowhead

California-based Westbourne International obtained an injunction against Arrowhead General Insurance Agency earlier this week after a federal jury had previously awarded the company over $5.8 million stemming from Arrowhead’s reported infringment of Westbourne’s software.

According to a sworn statement by Steve Boyd, San Diego-based Arrowhead’s VP of Information Systems, “[this injunction] will cause at least a temporary shutdown of all the electronic business for each division… The Arrowhead On-line (YouZoom) division will be completely shut down.”

In a release, Arrowhead expressed its disappointment in the decision made by Southern District Chief Judge Marilyn Huff to grant an injunction sought by Westbourne International in an intellectual property suit.

Judge Huff’s decision will have little impact on Arrowhead’s daily business operations as the decision was anticipated due to the complexity of the case and various motions still pending, according to Francis Ruyak, Arrowhead president and CEO.

Ruyak said that Arrowhead has put contingencies in place, saying that, “We are implementing the necessary software revisions to minimize the impact on our business partners and normalize operations. We have already identified alternative processes, and we are working to put them into operation.”

Counsel for Arrowhead noted that Westbourne was a subcontractor to one of the software firms engaged by Arrowhead to develop software for it. An eight-day jury trial before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California was concluded Monday (Aug. 11), with a finding by the six-member jury on behalf of Westbourne’s intellectual property suit. Judge Huff’s decision on the injunction had been deferred due to the complexity of the issues involved in the litigation. Arrowhead’s counsel said that the firm plans to appeal.

Ruyak said, “We are certain that Arrowhead will ultimately be found to have lawfully used the software in question, and we believe that the injunction will be vacated.”

Arrowhead General Insurance Agency Inc. is a member of the Arrowhead Group.