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Strategic Solutions Group sues Municipality of San Juan for $100M over copyright infringement

The form is seeking an injunction to prevent the municipality from further using its intellectual property without authorization.

Strategic Solutions Group Corp. (SSG), a Puerto Rican consulting firm, has filed a $100 million lawsuit against the Municipality of San Juan and its mayor, Miguel Romero, alleging copyright infringement and seeking damages.

The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, accuses the city of unauthorized use of SSG’s intellectual property in federal grant proposals submitted by the city.

According to the complaint, SSG was hired by San Juan in August 2023 under a $360,000 professional services contract to provide strategic consulting for the city’s Office of Management and Budget.

Among its responsibilities, SSG was tasked with preparing grant proposals under the Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) and Electrical Power Reliability and Resilience (ER2) programs, with a focus on establishing microgrid projects for enhanced energy resilience.

In late 2023, San Juan officials reportedly requested that SSG draft nine additional ER2 proposals under a tight deadline, agreeing to amend the original contract to compensate SSG for the extra work.

The complaint alleges that SSG delivered the proposals on time, allowing San Juan to meet its Jan. 31, 2024, federal deadline. However, SSG claims the city failed to honor its commitment to amend the contract and did not compensate the firm for the additional work.

The filing details how San Juan has since publicly celebrated the approval of four ER2 projects, totaling $91.7 million, as part of Romero’s efforts to improve infrastructure and energy resilience in the city.

According to the complaint, the mayor has publicized these successes across media platforms as the city’s achievements, allegedly benefiting politically and economically from SSG’s work without authorization or payment.

SSG claims ownership of the proposals as copyrighted intellectual property and has registered five of the nine proposals with the U.S. Copyright Office.

“Strategic Solutions Group invested hundreds of hours into producing high-quality work with the understanding that the city would honor its contractual obligations,” the lawsuit states. “Instead, the defendants exploited SSG’s copyrighted material to secure substantial federal funds, infringing upon SSG’s rights.”

SSG also alleges that city officials, including Vice Mayor Israel Alicea-Luciano, have ignored numerous requests for compensation and refused to return the proposals. The complaint accuses the municipality of misleading the firm with false promises to sign the contract amendment and challenges city officials’ encouragement for SSG to take legal action as the only means of redress.

The company is claiming at least $9 million in damages, representing 10% of the grant awards as expected administrative fees, in addition to lost opportunities from the city’s continued use of SSG’s proposals. The $100 million includes the $91.7 million in projects and the $9 million in loss of administrative fees.

SSG is seeking an injunction to prevent the municipality from further using its intellectual property without authorization, as well as legal fees and other costs.

Author Details
Author Details
Business reporter with 30 years of experience writing for weekly and daily newspapers, as well as trade publications in Puerto Rico. My list of former employers includes Caribbean Business, The San Juan Star, and the Puerto Rico Daily Sun, among others. My areas of expertise include telecommunications, technology, retail, agriculture, tourism, banking and most other segments of Puerto Rico’s economy.
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