New Jersey Appellate Court Dismisses Scientists’ Defamation Claims Against A Trade Organization That Accused Them Of Submitting A Plagiarized Article To Its Journal
By: Carl L. Engel
On January 5, 2023, the Appellate Division of the New Jersey Superior Court, in the case Synergy Microwave Corporation v. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, prohibited a pair of scientists from bringing claims against a trade organization that had accused them of submitting a plagiarized article to its journal. The court found that the scientists’ claims were barred by New Jersey law, because they never had a contract with the trade organization, and the trade organization never targeted the scientists’ business interests, but only their submission of the article. As a result of the court’s decision, the plaintiffs are left with no claims, and even more publicity of the plagiarism allegations against them. This case illustrates the risk inherent in defamation and disparagement lawsuits that negative statements will be reprinted and republished as part of the litigation process. Potential plaintiffs should consider the risk of additional negative publicity when deciding whether to bring such an action.
Synergy Microwave Corporation designs and manufactures radio-frequency and microwave components. Dr. Ulrich Rohde is its chairman, and Dr. Ajay Poddar is its chief scientist. They are both longstanding members of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (“IEEE”), which is a professional organization with 350,000 members in 160 countries dedicated to the electrical and electronics engineering and computer science fields. The IEEE is responsible for producing several trade publications, and sponsoring thousands of conferences around the world.
In June 2017, Drs. Rohde and Poddar were invited to serve on the Technical Program Committee, where they discussed potential articles to publish in connection with the 2018 International Frequency Control Symposium. They submitted two draft articles to the Committee. One of the drafts concerned work being done at their company, Synergy. This draft is the subject of the lawsuit.
The Committee discussed the draft at a meeting in February 2018, but neither Dr. Rohde nor Dr. Poddar were able to attend. There the draft was rejected. On February 23, 2018, the general chair of the Symposium emailed Drs. Rohde and Poddar to inform them that the IEEE’s automated review process had detected “previously published material,” i.e. material about work being done at Synergy. Specifically, the draft contained portions of another publication taken verbatim. Dr. Poddar responded to explain that any articles prepared for the Symposium would include proper attribution of material prepared by others.
Later in 2018, when Dr. Poddar was under consideration for an award from IEEE, he asked two members who had supported him for the award in earlier years to support him again. The members refused, however, informing him that they were aware of a plagiarism investigation. Dr. Poddar then contacted IEEE to inquire about the plagiarism investigation. IEEE informed Dr. Poddar that it had found “plagiarism” as defined under its own publication manual, and had imposed a three-year publication ban on him and Dr. Rohde.
In connection with the plagiarism investigation, IEEE withdrew several articles written by Synergy employees from publication, which disrupted the planned launch of several new products. Synergy employees also had their speaking engagements cancelled.
In the fall of 2020, Synergy and Drs. Rohde and Poddar filed a lawsuit against IEEE and several of its members. The plaintiffs brought claims to recover damages for the lost sales they suffered as a result of the plagiarism investigation becoming known in the industry, and the ban on publishing articles about new products. They also requested an order prohibiting IEEE and its members from communicating that Drs. Rohde and Poddar had been investigated for plagiarism. On July 21, 2021, the trial court dismissed the plaintiffs’ complaint, because they had failed to state claims supported by New Jersey law. The plaintiffs appealed.
On January 5, 2023, the Appellate Division affirmed the trial court. The court found that the plaintiffs never had a contract with IEEE, even though they were members of the organization, because the bylaws which governed publications applied to non-members as well as members. Therefore, IEEE could not have breached a contractual obligation to plaintiffs as a result of their plagiarism investigation and publication ban. The court found also that the trial court had properly dismissed the plaintiffs’ trade libel and disparagement claims, because IEEE’s plagiarism allegations had been directed at Drs. Rohde and Poddar personally, and not at their company, Synergy. Further, the allegations did not pertain to the quality of Synergy’s products, but instead specifically addressed a draft paper submitted by Drs. Rohde and Poddar. In other words, there were no derogatory statements aimed at Synergy’s business to support a trade libel claim.
As a result of this lawsuit, Drs. Rohde and Poddar drew increased attention to the plagiarism investigation against them, which is now memorialized in the Appellate Division’s published decisions. The name in popular culture for this phenomenon is called the “Streisand Effect,” after the singer Barbara Streisand tried to have pictured of her mansion barred from publication, which only caused more people to look at the pictures. The Streisand Effect applies not only to celebrities, but to litigants as well. Persons who feel aggrieved by statements made about them must consider that those statements will be repeated and published if they bring a defamation or disparagement claim based on them.