John Harbin, Joel Williams, Ryan Pumpian, Damon Whitaker and others at the Powell Goldstein represented American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus ("Aflac") (NYSE: AFL) in enforcing its copyrights in certain of its supplemental health insurance policies against Assurant, Inc. (NYSE: AIZ) and two of its subsidiaries, Fortis Insurance Company and John Alden Life Insurance Company.

A hearing on Aflac's motion for preliminary injunction was held December 22, 2005 . Shortly thereafter, on January 11, 2006 , federal district court judge Beverly Martin issued a 45-page opinion finding that all four of the Aflac policies at issue were original works entitled to copyright protection and that Defendants had infringed the cancer and accident policies, Aflac's two biggest sellers. Finding that, at least with regard to these two policies, the "evidence of defendants' copying is remarkable," the Court issued a nationwide injunction preventing Defendants from selling any more of their infringing cancer and accident policies, with the amount of bond to be posted by Aflac to be determined.

The ruling is significant because, while it has long been the law that contracts like insurance policies are capable of receiving copyright protection, Defendants' counsel repeatedly claimed that there are no reported cases finding such policies infringed.

Joey Loudermilk , Aflac's Executive Vice President of Legal and Government Affairs was very pleased with the Court's decision and stated "While we welcome fair competition, there should be no shortcut to the marketplace or easy route for developing the best insurance products."

Defendants recently filed an appeal to the Eleventh Circuit.

The style of the case is American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus v. Assurant, Inc. Fortis Insurance Company, and John Alden Life Insurance Company, United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Civil Action No. 1:05-CV-1462.

The full text is posted online by BNA at http://pub.bna.com/ptcj/1051462Jan11.pdf .