Plaintiff, Liberty Power Corp. (LPC), brought suit against Defendants, Stewart Katz, Stewart A. Katz, Inc. (SAK) and Foundation Energy Services, LLC (FES), alleging misappropriation of certain customer information protectable as trade secrets. LPC is a supplier of electricity in states with deregulated energy markets that employs an in-house sales staff, as well as independent contractors, to carry out its work. Defendants, SAK and FES, are entities owned by defendant Stewart Katz that served as independent contractors to Plaintiff. Plaintiff alleges misappropriation of trade secrets and unfair competition, contending that certain customer specific information constituted trade secrets. Defendants contend the specific information at issue can be obtained from the customers and acquired from a commercially available sales lead list.
The court determined this information likely would constitute a trade secret and had been misappropriated by defendant. On Jan. 26, 2011, the court denied Plaintiff’s motion for a preliminary injunction on the grounds that it failed to sufficiently establish that it will suffer irreparable harm if the court does not issue a preliminary injunction.