ERI files suit alleging theft of trade secrets

ERI., headquartered in Fresno, California, has filed a lawsuit in the New York Supreme Court against Revivn Public Benefit Corp., headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, alleging that the defendant has stolen confidential and proprietary information from ERI in an attempt to undercut and undermine the company with its own customers and suppliers.

In the filing, ERI also says Revivn is recruiting high-value ERI employees “who cannot perform their new jobs without inevitably disclosing the confidential information that they know about ERI, its operations and its customers.”

Revivn, which was founded in 2012 by co-CEOs John Fazzolari and Anthony Serina, according to its website, is a public benefit corporation, or a for-profit enterprise that has a public benefit mission, with 150 employees worldwide in locations that include Boston; Washington; Atlanta; Chicago; Nashville, Tennessee; Austin, Texas; Denver; Salt Lake City; Phoenix; Portland, Oregon; Seattle; San Francisco; Dublin; Paris; London; and Berlin.

ERI, which was founded in 2002, says the company is a direct competitor “in the business of recycling and refurbishing electronics hardware in a secure and environmentally responsible way.”

According to ERI, Revivn is about to open a facility in Fresno “to recruit ERI’s employees, most of whom live in or near Fresno,” adding that the company “has been raiding ERI’s senior ranks by poaching or attempting to poach key employees with the assistance of a former ERI employee named Justin LeDoux.”

With LeDoux, formerly ERI’s senior director of operations, the company says Revivn is targeting “ERI’s sensitive financial and corporate information, customer and market information, operational and facility information, technology and proprietary systems, and strategic and business plans” and using it to unfairly compete against the company.

ERI’s former director of logistics, Ross Sylvester, also has been hired by Revivn, ERI says, adding that the knowledge that he and LeDoux possess about ERI’s operations, “if deployed by a direct competitor like Revivn, would allow that competitor to inflict immediate and irreparable harm on ERI.”

The lawsuit also points to ERI’s proprietary automation systems, robotics integration and software platforms that were developed through significant internal investment and lend advantages in speed, safety, throughput, reporting accuracy and fire mitigation for ERI. “Competitors cannot readily duplicate these technologies without access to ERI’s confidential technical specifications, performance data, vendor integrations and operational metrics,” the company says. “Access to that information dramatically shortens the development cycle and reduces the risk inherent in building such systems from scratch.”

Among the relief ERI is asking the court to award are damages in an amount to be determined at trial and a permanent injunction preventing Revivn from using ERI’s confidential information and/or trade secrets to solicit, market the company to or do business with ERI’s existing and prospective customers and suppliers and allowing LeDoux and Sylvester to use ERI’s confidential information and/or trade secrets (whether known from documents or memory) while working for Revivn.

A spokesman for ERI says the company cannot comment on the case. Revin has not responded to a request for comment.