It most certainly is not, in the same way that when you are punished for stealing a car, you do not get to keep the car.
If Best Buy wants to keep using the model they will have to come to a licensing agreement with TechForward or whoever owns the IP. And they're not in a very advantageous position..
What do you mean? Who stopped operating what program?
edit: oh you mean BB running the buyback program. Well I assume the analytical model could be used in other ways probably. I don't think wether this specific program has stopped is very relevant to wether BB is still allowed to use that model.
The sensitive contents of the "analytical model" were enumerated in earlier filings in this case and involved the number of customer redemptions of the program and resaleability and inventory issues with repurchases products. Best Buy replaced significant portions of the model by using an insurance-backed system instead of a cash reserve system (parameters for the cash reserve system were one of the enumerated sensitive model bits).
Several of the other "smoking gun" claims that Techforward made were elements of Techforward's own website. Techforward operated a buyback program independently at the same time they were in partnership talks with Best Buy. Anyone could have looked up the terms they used.
I don't think it's likely Best Buy is using this stuff outside the buyback program.
If Best Buy wants to keep using the model they will have to come to a licensing agreement with TechForward or whoever owns the IP. And they're not in a very advantageous position..