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College Board, KDCP Settle SAT Lawsuit

College Board, KDCP Settle SAT Lawsuit
5/14/2008
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Scholarships.com Staff

For two months, College Board and Karen Dillard's College Prep LP (KDCP), a college test-prep company, have been embroiled in a heated battle over allegations of copyright infringement. The two have now settled, with KDCP agreeing to give College Board $1 million--$400,000 in the form of free tutoring services to low-income high schools.

The problem began when College Board, the administrator of the SAT and AP exams, found through a previous KDCP staff member that KDCP had obtained and used unpublished copies of the SAT. Though President Karen Dillard did admit that her company had obtained the copies without permission, she denied selling the exams or using unpublished materials to tutor students. She instead accused College Board of attempting to monopolize the standardized test-prep business and of obtaining its evidence illegally (grounds for her countersuit).

Eventually, both sides dropped their lawsuit and a compromise between the $300,000 settlement first proposed by Ms. Dillard and the $1.25 million suggested by College Board was reached. College Board also agreed that students tutored by KDCP would not have their SAT exam scores canceled, a measure College Board threatened to take in the wake of the lawsuit. 

The New York Times quoted College Board Senior Vice President of Operations Laurence Bunin saying, “We believe that the settlement shows that KDCP acted improperly in copying and distributing a secure SAT test form and other college materials…We have demonstrated that we cannot and will not tolerate such conduct, and that we will take all appropriate steps to protect our tests.”

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