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Simpson Thacher obtained a permanent injunction for TD Bank, N.A. in a copyright infringement litigation brought against Vernon Hill, the former CEO of Commerce Bancorp, LLC, which TD Bank acquired in 2008. The lawsuit concerns ownership of a book manuscript that Hill and many TD Bank employees collaborated to write in 2007, shortly before Hill separated from Commerce Bank. Hill copied verbatim content from the 2007 manuscript into a book that he published in 2012. TD Bank sued Hill for copyright infringement, and the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey ruled in July 2015 that TD Bank owned the manuscript and that Hill had infringed its copyright. On June 14, 2016, the Court found that Hill had continued to infringe TD Bank’s copyright after the Court had issued its infringement finding, and that TD Bank was entitled to a permanent injunction against Hill’s distribution of his 2012 book, so long as it contains material from TD’s manuscript. 

The Simpson Thacher team on the injunction consisted of Lori Lesser and Stephen Raiola. Simpson Thacher Associates Genevieve Dorment and Michael Joshi worked on the initial copyright infringement action. Brown Connery LLP served as co-counsel to TD Bank.