Domino's source code scrutinised as GPS court battle looms

Domino's Pizza Enterprises has been forced to hand over the source code for its GPS Tracker application for scrutiny by its former partner in the lead up to a pivotal hearing in the pair's federal court battle over intellectual property.

The Domino's GPS tracking app under fire.

The dispute between Domino's and Precision Tracking has been ongoing since 2014 after the pizza chain decided not to proceed with GPS tracking technology it had been testing with the firm for two years.

Instead Domino's developed its own vehicle tracking system in partnership with Navman Wireless that allowed customers to monitor the status of their pizzas during delivery.

Precision Tracking claims Domino's and Navman reverse-engineered its technology to create a replica of its Delivery Command system.

Domino's denies the claims and argues it tested a number of solutions at the time and found Navman's to be superior.

The pair are battling it out in joint lawsuits; Domino's is also challenging a patent awarded to Precision Tracking for its GPS technology.

The firms are preparing for a major court hearing in their legal battle, which is set to occur over a 15-day period from November 27.

In the lead up, Domino's was ordered to provide source code for the application as well as detailed descriptions of how the system and the Navman Qube device work.

It was also told to hand over a laptop and USB belonging to GPS Driver Tracker project lead Stephen Reardon, as well as specific email exchanges between Domino's and Navman IT professionals.

Domino's was similarly ordered to make the system available for inspection by Precision Tracking's technical expert, and provide the firm details on the return on investment it had experienced from the system; specifically increased business revenue, reduced expenses, and other savings or benefits.

Additionally, Navman was last week ordered by the court to detail how data and messages about driver location are sent to the user's device, as well as how data is sent back and forth from the customer device to the Domino's Pulse point-of-sale system.

The inspection of the Domino's GPS Driver Tracker system by Precision Tracking's technical expert took place in Sydney last Tuesday.

Both parties' technical experts will confer in mid-November to create a joint report that outlines areas of agreement and disagreement, and reasons for any differences.

Domino's faced a similar lawsuit in the US by Prostar Wireless Group but was successful earlier this year in getting the action dismissed.

Prostar had chased US$15 million in damages claiming Domino's had replicated its technology after ending a 10-year partnership with the firm for its navigation software.

The lawsuit was dismissed after a US district court found Prostar had not been able to substiantiate the allegations.