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. 

Aptean, which markets the Ross ERP system and Pivotal CRM line, has hired Kim Eaton as COO. She will oversee global operations including product development; professional services and support; and training and education. Eaton was with NCR from August 2011 through her taking the new position. There, she was most recently VP of strategy and integration for hospitality.

The Sage Group has chosen technology leader and British government official Stephen Kelly as its new CEO. Kelly will take over from the current job holder, Guy Berruyer on November 5. On that date, Berruyer will also retire as a director of the United Kingdom-based company, but will remain available in a transition role until the end of March. Kelly will receive an annual salary of about $1.3 million and a one-time award of about $1.7 million that vests over a six years, depending on share return performance.

Sage will introduce Sage ERP X3 Online in the North America next month. And I’m somewhat puzzled that the press release on the Sage U.K. as and in the noisy executive Q&A at the recent Summit conference, I don’t remember mention of Sage X3. Strange. The product will have a controlled release on this continent before the world-wide roll out. The remarks by Christophe Letellier, CEO of Sage ERP X3 did not mention any schedule for introduction in other countries. The browser interface is based on HMTL5, which sounds pretty standard.