This first article is on a U.S. Department of Defense contractor from Baltimore pleading guilty to conspiring to steal competitive information concerning contracts to supply fuel to DOD aircraft at locations worldwide. Matthew Bittenbender is the defendant. He agree to cooperate in the government's investigation. His plea agreement was that he had conspired to steal trade secrets from his employer, Avcard, and sell that information to his competitors, Feras and Aerocontrol. He would be getting from them cash and a percentage of the profits. He pleaded guity to defraud the United States, to commit wire fraud, and to steal trade secrets. He is facing a maximum of 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 for the first violation, 20 years in prison and $250,000 for the second, 20 years and $250,000 for the third, and 10 years and $250,00 for the fouth. At the same time he was charged there were two other people were indicted. Their trials are scheduled for July 7, 2008. This is a good example of what we were talking about with trade secrets and how it is a very bad offense that has violators look at prison time and huge fines.
Judge increases mining awardThis article is on a mining tire company based in Sarasota who filed a suit against a former employee who was handing out trade secrets. The judgment passed has gone up to $59 million dollars. On March 12 the Circuit Court awarded exemplary damages of $39.3 million on top of the $19.7 million from the initial judgment. This monetary penalty is the largest trade secret judgment in Florida history. Sam Vance began working for China-based Guizhou Tire Co. while still working for Alpha and gave information to them Guizhou. Vance then began work at Al Dobowi Group and gave all of Alpha's trade secrets to them. It was proven that they lose a lot of money from this. From April to January they lost more than $10 million. This shows how easy it is for companies to lose their trade secrets through their employees. It's hard to entrust vital information about your company to people who are only at your business for as long as they are employed. That is why so many companies have their employees sign these agreements.
Legal Suit filed over trade secretstThis article is about a dispute between Santa-Barara-based Mentor Corp and Santa Maria based Den Mat Holdings. Mentor is saying that a former employee emailed trade secrets to Den-Mat. They are both medical device makers and both focus on aesthetic or cosmetic procedures. Santa Barbara-based Mentor makes and markets breast, face and body aesthetics, the most prominent of which are its silicone-gel-filled breast implants. Santa Maria-based Den-Mat, a privately held firm, makes cosmetic dentistry products, among them a thin veneer that improves tooth appearance without drilling or shaving the teeth. Mentor's complaint is that Jamie Diggs, a Den-Mat employee emailed Mark Kelly asking for a set of documents. He sent a zip file that contained trade secret. It was discovered using a email monitoring system. The document said confidential on them and Kelly was not allowed to send them. Mentor wants Den-Mat to return the documents, pay the damages, and pay the legal fees. This is a good case to look at to see that sometime it's a very grey area with trade secrets. People can be tricked into leaking information that they shouldn't.