The U.S. Army has agreed to pay a Texas computer company $50 million for unlicensed use of its software to track soldiers and equipment.

Apptricity Corporation, an 80-employee firm based in Irving, has been under contract with the military since 2004 to provide programming that allows the Army to manage troop and supply movements around the world.

Initially, the company was paid $1.35 million so the Army could run Apptricity’s software on three servers and hundreds of individual workstations.

Three years later, the Army decided to expand the deal and purchased licenses for five servers and several thousand workstations, as well as annual maintenance.

But by 2008, company officials realized the Army was using the software on more servers and workstations than it had paid for. In total, the service had installed the programming on at least 98 servers and 11,000 computers.

Apptricity sued the Army for $224.5 million, and the two sides eventually agreed on a $50 settlement.

Chief financial officer Randy Lieberman told the Dallas Morning News that the settlement is many times more than the company’s annual revenues.

The lawsuit did not damage Apptricity’s relationship with the Army, which is still using the software.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

To Learn More:

Irving Software Firm Settles Suit with U.S. Army for $50 Million (by Michael Lindenberger, Dallas Morning News)

U.S. Government Pays Apptricity $50M for Copyright Infringement (Manufacturing Business Technology)