Jeff Parmet (1946 – 2023)
    Founder & Chief Advisor (2003 - 2023)
    Jeff Parmet

    It is with great regret we inform that Jeff Parmet passed away peacefully on July 16, 2023, surrounded by his loving family, and after a prolonged illness. Jeff Parmet was a widely respected software and IT expert who served substantially as a testifying expert on more than 200 software-related disputes.

    Jeff served DisputeSoft clients in the capacity of software failure expert, software intellectual property expert, Internet/E-commerce expert, or computer forensic and electronic discovery expert, depending on the requirements of the particular matter.

    Jeff had been involved in resolving more than 200 software disputes, and had served as a computer software expert witness in critical and high-profile cases on numerous occasions. The hallmark of Jeff’s practice was independent and objective technical consulting services leading to advice and/or expert witness testimony involving information technology.

    With 50+ years’ experience in the IT field (including 21 with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, whose IT-dispute practice he led until his retirement from the firm in 2003), Jeff represented plaintiffs and defendants & software developers and customers alike. He had been designated as a software expert in federal and state court, as well as in arbitrations and mediations. He served as a court-appointed neutral expert and presented in numerous IT programs for lawyers.

    Jeff’s 50+ years’ experience in information technology included software development and testing, project management, and systems integration. His experience included the full life-cycle of software development from business requirements definition to functional and technical specifications to system design, development, testing, deployment, post-production support, and licensing. He worked as a project manager on software development projects both large and small using a variety of software engineering, project management and costing methodologies. He led implementations and evaluations of many types of software applications such as ERP, HR, accounting, financial management, insurance claims processing and customer care. He worked extensively with leading HR and ERP software products such as SAP and Oracle, as well as with large custom systems. His industry experience included retail, financial services, insurance, manufacturing, government, utilities, emergency response and automotive, among others. He negotiated numerous software licenses, software services, and software maintenance agreements.

    Since 1996, he served as consultant and/or been designated testifying expert on cases involving computer system implementation and service failures. He also served as an expert on leading trade secret, copyright and patent infringement disputes. He also had extensive experience in e-commerce and served as a technical adviser to two e-commerce start-up companies.

    Representative Experience

    MedCorp, Inc. v. Pinpoint Technologies, Inc. and Zoll Data Systems, Inc.

    Nature of Suit: Software project failure matter regarding dispatch and billing software
    Role: Testifying expert

    • Jeff performed an analysis of the Zoll software and database architecture
    • Jeff proffered expert and rebuttal reports and gave depositions on each, wherein he opined that MedCorp’s system performance issues were caused by MedCorp’s failure to observe Zoll’s clearly stated specifications for both hardware configuration and current operating system and database versions

    InDyne, Inc. v. Abacus Technology Corp.

    Nature of Suit: Copyright infringement and trade secret misappropriation matter regarding a contract management system
    Role: Testifying expert

    • Jeff analyzed source code and established that it was not a copy of the registered work as it existed at the time of its publication in 2003, but instead was a version that had been substantially modified from 2003-2008
    • Jeff proffered an expert report wherein he explained that InDyne’s failure to produce an intact copy of the software version registered for copyright rendered it impossible to test whether the allegedly infringing work was “substantially similar” to InDyne’s copyrighted work

    Frontline Placement Technologies, Inc. v. CRS, Inc.

    Nature of Suit: Software patent infringement matter regarding a system for performing automated substitute-teacher fulfillment
    Role: Consulting expert

    • Jeff reviewed source code and the Frontline patent prosecution history, researched and analyzed prior art references, and issued expert reports regarding both non-infringement and invalidity
    • Jeff concluded that the disputed claims were invalid and that CRS’s software program did not infringe the Frontline patent

    EDUCATION

    • J.D., cum laude, San Fernando Valley College of Law

    • B.A., Cornell University

    Top Cases

    Case
    DisputeSoft was engaged by ConnectU in this trade secret misappropriation dispute involving allegations that Mark Zuckerberg used the plaintiff’s source code and trade secrets to create Facebook.
    Case
    DisputeSoft was engaged by Waste Management in this software failure dispute involving the implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software.
    Case
    DisputeSoft was engaged by BearingPoint in this software failure dispute involving the implementation of a customized SAP information system.

    Top Posts

    Post software piracy expert witness
    DisputeSoft's Jeff Parmet, Tom Ashley, and Nick Ferrara offer a brief overview of techniques DisputeSoft has used to lay the necessary evidentiary foundation to support misappropriation and infringement claims relating to online piracy.
    Post
    DisputeSoft's Jeff Parmet and Brendan McParland consider methods for assessing whether a deposit copy is proper in the context of software copyright registrations.

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