Harvard sues test-prep companies for allegedly stealing questions from an online Business School exam

Harvard University this week sued several companies that sell training materials for students taking a Business School "Credential of Readiness" online exam.

The nation's oldest college charges the companies are violating Harvard copyrights by using actual questions from the exam - given at the end of a two-to-three month online course, called HBX CORe, "for individuals seeking to understand the fundamentals of business, and how business theories apply in real business settings."

In a lawsuit filed this week in US District Court in Boston, the President and Fellows of Harvard College charge:

The CORe Exams, created at great expense by Harvard Business School, are original works of authorship fixed in a tangible medium of expression by Harvard. ...

Defendants have utilized a number of techniques to conceal their activities with
respect to all of their websites, including Certkiller.com, Testking.com, Certgenie.com andPass4sure.com. The techniques defendants have used to conceal their activities include, but are not necessarily limited to, private registration of their domain names, the use of false identities to register their domain names, and offshore hosting and payment facilities.

Based on the facts alleged herein, defendants have committed, and are
committing, thousands of acts of copyright infringement. These acts of infringement are willful, deliberate and committed with knowledge of Harvard’s registered copyrighted material.

Harvard is seeking an order to get the companies to knock it off, to give Harvard all the profits they've made on the products and to pay penalties for the alleged wrongdoing.

Complete Harvard complaint (2M PDF).