SIDNEY L. GOLD REPRESENTS THE PLAINTIFF IN $38 MILLION SETTLEMENT

October 26, 2011 – Sidney L. Gold recently represented the plaintiff in a complex intellectual property lawsuit that involved former employees and the alleged theft of trade secrets and other confidential business information.  The case was hard-fought for 5 years before Judge Cynthia Rufe in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.  The litigation included several novel legal questions and resulted in several published opinions on key issues.   It recently settled for $38 million and an agreement between the parties to jointly own the technology and information at the center of the dispute.

In this lawsuit, plaintiff Purolite International Ltd. claimed that defendant Thermax Ltd. set out to hire Purolite employees who knew or had access to Purolite’s proprietary chemical technology and sales information. Allegedly, the workers would then accumulate valuable confidential information related to the development, production and sale of ion exchange resins, resign from Purolite, and go to work for Thermax, bringing Purolite’s trade secrets with them.  Purolite, the trading name for Bro-Tech Corp., named as defendants three of Thermax’s high-ranking executives as well as the four former Purolite employees who left in 2005 to work for Thermax. Under the terms of the settlement, Thermax agreed to pay $38 million to Purolite — in four equal installments of $9.5 million — by the end of 2010.  The two companies have also agreed they will be joint owners of the disputed intellectual property.

Serving as one of the lead attorneys for Purolite, Sidney L. Gold provided his renowned expertise in employment law and his 28 years of experience as a skilled litigator in private practice in PA, NJ, NY and Delaware.  For more information on this case, contact Sidney L. Gold & Associates, Philly’s Employment Law attorneys.