LOS ANGELES – The National Council of Architectural Registration Boards has filed a lawsuit against an Anaheim resident who is accused of stealing architectural licensing exam questions and selling them online.
The National Council of Architectural Registration Boards filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California against defendant Hao Wu, citing copyright infringement, breach of contract, violation of the Defend Trade Secrets Act and violation of the California Uniform Trade Secrets Act.
According to the lawsuit, Wu, identified as a resident of Anaheim, is accused of profiting from the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards' (NCARB) copyrighted works, specifically the Architect Registration Exams (ARE). The ARE were created by NCARB as a set of computer-based exams used to determine candidates' knowledge and skills. Exam results have been accepted by U.S. jurisdictions for decades as a crucial step to earning an architectural license.
NCARB states that around December of 2022, the organization discovered that exam questions from ARE were being distributed and sold on the Chinese social media and messaging platform WeChat as part of a program called ACEARE, which was allegedly developed by defendant Wu. Wu allegedly took the ARE examination and unlawfully recorded the questions to distribute them for profit.
Candidates who take the ARE are required to acknowledge that they understand that the contents of the exam are confidential and protected by copyright and are required to agree not to disclose the ARE's contents. Wu would have been required to agree to these terms to take the ARE. The lawsuit states that by disseminating the contents of the ARE through the ACEARE program, Wu breached the terms of this agreement and copyright laws.
The lawsuit states that users had to purchase a key to unlock the contents of the ACEARE program and that Wu allegedly misrepresented himself as an agent of NCARB while allegedly providing keys to users. On Dec. 16, 2022, NCARB sent a letter through its attorneys to the defendant, notifying him that they were aware of his misconduct, and that same day, the ACEARE program was removed from WeChat.
NCARB states that as a result of the defendant's theft, the organization had to retire 431 exam questions and create new ones at the cost of at least $600,000.
NCARB is seeking damages for an amount exceeding $75,000, plus court costs, attorneys fees and any other relief the court deems proper. In addition, NCARB is seeking an injunction prohibiting the defendant from any other copyright infringement and ordering him to destroy all ARE material in his possession. The plaintiff is represented in this case by attorney Witt W. Chang of Venable LLP, in Los Angeles.
U.S. District Court for the Central District of California case number 2:23-CV-07785