ATLANTA — A Florida-based software company is suing Atlanta-based Norfolk Southern Co., alleging the rail giant stole their AI program in the wake of the East Palestine train derailment.
Duos Technologies is demanding damages from Norfolk Southern, according to court records, for the rail company’s use of their AI algorithm without proper licensing, despite the patent held and owned by Duos.
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Duos is claiming their stolen tech was used in the wake of the East Palestine derailment to make Norfolk Southern’s portals, which was used for inspections and capturing high-speed images of trains.
Duos also claims in the lawsuit that this impacts portals and software developed by Norfolk Southern in partnership with the Georgia Institute of Technology.
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Among the lawsuit’s claims, Duos said in a court filing that “Norfolk Southern has also misrepresented or implied in industry settings that its inspection systems are its own innovation, misleading regulators, customers, and stakeholders.”
The company said in the court filing that it has been trying to get Norfolk Southern to cease the alleged infringement since at least 2024.
Duos is seeking treble damages, attorneys fees, interest on pre- and post-judgment damages, compensatory damages and for a federal judge to have the court force Norfolk Southern to disclose the alleged lack of proprietary rights to companies it may be attempting to merge with.
Currently, Norfolk Southern is in the process of merging with fellow rail company Union Pacific.
The case is now before a Georgia-based federal judge, having moved from Florida to Georgia this week.
Channel 2 Action News reached out to Norfolk Southern for comment. The company said “We don’t have anything to offer beyond the filings we’ve made throughout on this one, which lay out our position pretty well.”
In their motion to dismiss the case filed in federal court, Norfolk Southern’s attorneys said rather than using Duos Technologies’ software, that the Florida-based developer filed the lawsuit due to being “unable to compete with Norfolk Southern’s superior and proprietary inspection technology.”
The rail company said Duos’ lawsuit is based on a narrowly tailored set of patent rights, and that the lawsuit was filed in haste, leading to two previous and fatal mistakes in older court filings.
The company asserts Duos Technologies’ claims are baseless and fail to meet court-required minimums for stating a claim to get relief from through the lawsuit and failed to show or provide notice of how the Norfolk Southern Inspection Portals they developed with Georgia Tech infringe upon their patents.
“Plaintiff has resorted to filing a sprawling shotgun pleading, heaping together a disorganized collection of vague and conclusory allegations” due to their lack of “any viable legal theory” and an absence of providing patent analysis or factual support, according to the dismissal motion by Norfolk Southern.
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