The American Institute of CPAs settled its copyright infringement lawsuit Tuesday with KAPLI Inc., a provider of review course materials, over the company’s alleged use of some of the questions and test items from the AICPA’s Uniform CPA Exam that had not previously been made public.
Under the terms of the settlement, KAPLI, which is short for Korean American Professional Learning Institute, has agreed to a confidential financial settlement, the terms of which have not been disclosed.
As part of the settlement, the review course provider has stated its intention to improve the public’s awareness of the AICPA’s copyrights and the integrity of the Uniform CPA Examination and agreed to educate its examinees as to the importance of maintaining the confidentiality of the Uniform CPA Examination questions and test items.
Toward that end, and under the terms of the settlement, the parties have entered into a license agreement under which the AICPA will release to KAPLI certain CPA Examination content and test materials for use in its review courses.
"We are committed to protecting the public interest by ensuring the Uniform CPA Exam is conducted in a fair and level testing environment,” said AICPA vice president of examinations Craig Mills in a statement. “We are pleased that this review course provider has agreed to cooperate in our ongoing investigation of candidates who may have violated their confidentiality commitment by improperly sharing questions and test items.”
The AICPA said it would provide any actionable information to the relevant state boards of accountancy, along with possible recommendations to cancel scores and revoke eligibility to sit for the exam. “The AICPA has a number of tools to detect cheating and question stealing and any individual or group who engages in inappropriate behavior will be aggressively pursued,” said Mills.
The AICPA has agreed that once all the terms and conditions of the settlement have been met, the lawsuit will be dismissed.
