Brief: Textbook publishers win $34m in counterfeiting suit

A consortium of top education publishers has won a landmark lawsuit against a retail business run by Philip Smyres.

The jury in the case awarded EPEG – a group representing Cengage, Pearson Education, John Wiley, and McGraw-Hill Education – $20m in damages for trademark infringement and $14m for copyright infringement. The lawsuit was filed against Smyres and two businesses, Book Dog Books and Robert William Management, reports Inside Higher Ed, which says Smyres intends to appeal the verdict.

It’s the latest in a protracted campaign against counterfeit textbooks that also resulted a settlement with Follett Corp last year, which agreed to adopt an EPEG-developed anti-counterfeiting programme in return for the dismissal of a lawsuit claiming it was facilitating the sale of illegal textbook copies through college stores and other distribution channels.