National Fish and Seafood needs to identify the trade secrets that it alleges Tampa Bay Fisheries obtained in the ongoing legal battle between the two major seafood suppliers, according to newly-filed court documents.
Gloucester, Massachusetts, U.S.A.-based National Fish and Seafood alleges that its former executive Kathleen Scanlon stole trade secrets on NFS’s proprietary Matlaw’s clam production process, and gave them to her new employer, Tampa, Florida, U.S.A.-headquartered Tampa Bay Fisheries.
However, NFS has “produced no responsive documents, no substantive interrogatory responses, and no identification of the alleged trade secrets taken by Tampa Bay,” Tampa Bay said in a new court filing.
A hearing on the documents NFS wants Tampa Bay to turn over is set for late February, while the case is scheduled to go to trial in July.
“NFS originally alleged that through Kathleen Scanlon, Tampa Bay obtained NFS recipes and pricing information – but the court-ordered forensic exam proved otherwise. The Court thus lifted the temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, and set the parties on track for a July trial, but NFS has still done nothing to comply with its most basic discovery obligations,” attorneys for Tampa Bay wrote in court documents.
Last fall, U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin removed an injunction against Scanlon, allowing her to work for Tampa Bay Fisheries.
Tampa Bay said NFS should identify the trade secrets it alleges Tampa Bay obtained, provide responsive documents to requests “that have been outstanding for months”, and serve responses regarding NFS’ novel damages theory, “so that Tampa Bay can obtain the third-party discovery needed to defend itself,” the supplier said.
