The United States government has agreed to pay $50 million to the software company Apptricity after settling a $180 million case that the Army pirated the company's software.
The complaint filed against the US in February 2012 claimed that the Army had installed Apptricity's software on an additional 100 servers and 9,000 devices for which they did not have a license.
In 2004, the Army paid Apptricity $4.5 million for their software which allowed them to track their soldiers in real time across multiple time zones. In the suit, Apptricity claimed the Army used more copies than they had paid for.
"Field commanders were focused on the mission-critical nature of Apptricity software and the need to protect warfighters and facilitate mission objectives," Apptricity’s chief executive officer Tim Garcia said in a press release. "Our battle-tested integrated logistics software performed so well that it went viral."
According to Apptricity, their software was used in transportation logistics across the Middle East as well as in emergency relief initiatives such as Army efforts following the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti.
"Now that this process is behind us, it is envisioned the Apptricity and Army relationship will continue to grow exponentially," said retired Maj. Gen. Tim McHale, an Apptricity senior advisor.
