A decision in a patent infringement case brought against Lawson Software in 2009 has been vacated. The case was brought by ePlus, which alleged multiple infringements of different ePlus patents by Lawson procurement software. Lawson was acquired by Infor in mid-2011. Most claims were dismissed by a jury in 2011 or by a decision in 2012 by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. In May 2011, ePlus won an injunction against Lawson, which then redesigned its software to eliminate any infringement. But e-Plus claimed the new software was not much different and that Lawson had violated the injunction.

The court agreed and fined Lawson $18 million for civil contempt. In November 2013, the Federal Circuit affirmed a finding by the United States Patent and Trademark Office that ePlus' remaining patent claim was invalid. Lawson prevailed in a ruling last week by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which had already thrown out a number of ePlus's claims. The appeals court ruled there was no legal basis for the conjunction and that contempt award had to be set aside. The appeals returned the case to the District Court with instructions to dismiss it.