On October 4, 2012, National Oilwell Varco LP (“NOV”) petitioned for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) and Injunction against its competitor Ceram-Kote, Inc., (“Ceram-Kote”), Ceram-Kote’s President Kevin Freeman, and former NOV employee Nelson Calderon (collectively “Defendants”). NOV brought the suit in Texas State court to stop Ceram-Kote from producing a “knock-off blast unit” that Ceram-Kote allegedly misappropriated from NOV.
NOV claims that “Ceram-Kote along with its president, Kevin Freeman, secretly recruited and paid Nelson Calderson – while he was still working at [NOV] –to build a knock-off of a . . . sophisticated piece of [NOV] industrial machinery,” which was an NOV trade secret. Calderon had access to highly confidential information by virtue of his employment with NOV, and had signed multiple confidentially agreement with the company. After NOV received an anonymous tip about a possible knock-off blast unit at Ceram-Kote, it approached Calderon, who confessed to accepting a bribe from Freeman and providing him with confidential designs.
Per NOV’s filing: “Rather than investing in research and development themselves, they decided to cheat — by paying a [NOV] employee $40,000 to design a large scale blast unit for them by using [NOV’s] proprietary technology.” In addition to NOV’s claim for misappropriation of trade secrets pursuant to the Texas Uniform Trade Secrets Act, NOV brought additional causes of action for breach of contract[s], tortious interference with a contract, conversion, conspiracy, unjust enrichment and constructive trust.