By Carolyn Quek

A PRIVATE school got a $20,000 payout last week, after it found out that the lecture notes it had developed for its own students were being used elsewhere.

Stansfield College took three of its former lecturers and the Institute of Certified Public Accountants (ICPAS) to court for copyright infringement in September last year.

Last Wednesday, three days into the hearing, the matter was settled out of court for the $20,000 sum.

Stansfield found out by chance, in March last year, that its notes were being recycled when one of its lecturers was asked by his neighbour to help in her studies at the Singapore Accounting Academy, the training arm of ICPAS.

The lecturer, Mr Vincent Seet, discovered that the economics lecture notes she had were what he was also using in his school.

Two of the ex-lecturers - Mr Teo Chua Chin and Mr Alan Ng Kam Cheong - had joined the academy to teach full-time. The third, Mr T. Durairajoo, was teaching part-time in both schools.

The trio initially refuted Stansfield's allegations, maintaining that the material found in the lecture notes was accessible to the public, and was not original works that Stansfield could lay claim to.

Besides settling on the payout, the trio agreed to stop using the four sets of notes in question, on economics, mathematics, sociology and accounting.

The four subjects are linked to the University of London degree programmes offered by both Stansfield and the academy in areas such as business, finance and accounting.

Lecturers here teach according to the university's course syllabus but the schools have to develop their own teaching material.

Stansfield chairman Kannappan Chettiar said the notes had been developed over the 15 years since the school was started. He added that at least one defendant - Mr Ng - had contributed to the notes.

Stansfield, which has a campus in Dhoby Ghaut, hired a private investigator to enrol as a student with the academy to obtain the notes, which Mr Chettiar said were 'almost 100 per cent' reproduction of Stansfield's notes.

Even the Stansfield logo could be made out on some of the photocopied pages. 'Some mistakes were also copied, so it was obvious,' Mr Chettiar added.

The school sued because it wanted to assert its copyright and placate aggrieved teaching staff, he said.

When contacted, ICPAS maintained its innocence in the matter and said it was the three lecturers - whom it terms the leading parties in the lawsuit - who decided on settling the matter out of court.

'As the three defendants decided on settlement to resolve the dispute, ICPAS agreed to support their decision,' said Mr Evan Law, the academy's training director.

An ICPAS spokesman said both Mr Teo and Mr Ng are still full-time lecturers with the school while Mr Durairajoo is no longer with them.

carolynq@sph.com.sg

This article was first published in The Straits Times.