Dallas Business Lawyer Blog

Dallas Sleep Snoring Clinic Sues Competitor For Stealing Trade Secrets And Business Strategies

 

 

The founder of a Dallas-based snoring and sleep apnea center claims a group of San Francisco businessmen stole the facility’s trade secrets and its marketing strategy in the multi-billion dollar sleep deprivation industry.

The Snoring Center and founder Dr. Craig Schwimmer have filed a federal lawsuit against Wade Zander, Jason Godfrey and Dr. Matthew Mingrone, accusing the three men of fraudulently obtaining proprietary information to establish and falsely market a competing practice.

The lawsuit, filed Nov. 3 in federal district court in Dallas, claims that in late 2008 and 2009, Zander, Godfrey and Mingrone presented themselves as potential investors and joint venture partners in The Snoring Center’s plans to expand beyond Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston. Later, the men used the center’s confidential information, clinical data and advertising strategies to open Sereno Center for Snoring Solutions in downtown San Francisco early this year, according to the lawsuit.

For more information regarding trade secrets and theft of business property, go to www.businesslawyerdallastexas.com or call 214-855-0034.

 

Jury Awards Company 25 Million For Trade Secret Violations In Texas

 

A jury awarded $25 million to Baker Hughes in its lawsuit against oil field products maker Varel Holdings. Baker Hughes accused Varel of using its trade secrets to design what became Varel's best-selling premium drill bit. In 2009, a former Varel engineer disclosed that Varel had used Baker Hughes' documents in the design process. The engineer claimed that his superiors at Varel gave him confidential Baker Hughes documents and told him to "clone" the drill bit. He said he was told to shred the documents when the project was over, but he secretly kept them and provided them to Baker Hughes after Varel refused to renew his visa. Varel acknowledged that it received and used the design plans, but it disputed whether the documents were a properly protected trade secret.

For more information on Texas business law, visit www.businesslawyerdallastexas.com

 

Cinemark and Imax In Legal Battle Over Trade Secrets

Cinemark is going to the mat with IMAX Corp.over IMAX’s allegations that a new movie theater concept from Cinemark is essentially a copy of IMAX’s well-known large-screen “immersion theaters,” according to court records.

The conflict produced two separate court cases earlier this month.

In one, filed in federal district court in Sherman Nov. 3, Plano-based Cinemark is doing a legal pre-emptive strike by seeking a court order declaring that its new theaters do not infringe on two IMAX patents.

The second suit, which Canada’s IMAX brought in New York state court nine days later, contends that Cinemark has, among other things, breached a contract between the two companies by “misappropriating” trade secrets that IMAX provided to Cinemark. Cinemark used the business relationship with IMAX to copy IMAX’s theater concept and then compete against IMAX, court documents allege.