Sri Lanka’s Medical Joyworks Secures an ex-parte injunction against Indian ed-tech behemoth Unacademy

Medical Joyworks, LLC—Sri Lankan-based start-up in ed-tech solutions for medical professionals and organizations—was granted an ex-parte ad-interim injunction as part of an ongoing comprehensive lawsuit against Indian ed-tech giant Unacademy (Sorting Hat Technologies Private Limited) and its subsidiary PrepLadder Private Limited for committing acts of deceit and malfeasance by blatantly copying Medical Joyworks’s Prognosis application and other property.

In a hearing held on September 20th, 2021, the Bombay City Civil Court passed an order in which Unacademy, PrepLadder, and a string of other defendants that include major international financial backers such as Blume Venture Advisors, Sequoia Capital India, the SoftBank Vision Fund, and Temasek Holdings, have been restrained from using the PrepLadder application and website—as well as their content in their entirety—until all proprietary information, know-how, and technology belonging to Medical Joyworks has been removed to the satisfaction of Medical Joyworks and an independent auditor.

During the hearing, Medical Joyworks provided comprehensive evidence detailing how PrepLadder had been systematically replicating, altering, and presenting as their own the entirety of Medical Joyworks’s proprietorial information, know-how, and technology, including but not limited to the Prognosis: Your Diagnosis simulation (a unique step-based learning simulation created by Medical Joyworks and first released as an app in the Apple App Store in October 2010), the Prognosis content catalog (a comprehensive library of more than 465 learning modules), other proprietary titles and their libraries (such as Clinical Sense and Explain Medicine), and the Prognosis: Your Diagnosis app interface— all without the authorization of Medical Joyworks.

Medical Joyworks CEO and Co-Founder, Dr. Nayana Somaratna, had this to say about the Court’s decision:

“We are most grateful to the Honorable Court for granting an injunction order to protect our rights, and for acting swiftly and decisively regarding this matter.”

“We will continue our lawsuit in the hopes that a satisfactory resolution that honors our work, our customers, and the broader medical community will be achieved.”