A North Vancouver media company is suing a former employee for allegedly using proprietary information to develop a competing business.
In its May 21 claim, Petromedia Ltd. says that Martyn Lasek was a director of the company and served as managing director, web systems engineer and business expansion manager and finally chief operating officer.
The company operates the websites www.bunkerworld.com and www.oceanintelligence.com, which provide news and bunker price indications for shipping and oil companies and market intelligence for the marine fuels industry.
Petromedia alleges Lasek resigned from the company on May 13, 2011, but continued to do freelance work until September 2011.
Petromedia alleges that Lasek did not return a laptop, smartphone and software that belonged to them, and that he accessed the Petromedia intranet to create a fake invoice stating that the company had sold the equipment to him for $100.
Petromedia also claims that while Lasek did freelance work from May to September 2011, he had access to their intranet.
The plaintiff alleges that Lasek partnered with Stephen Carr to incorporate Big Ranch Media in July 2011. That company operates the website www.shipandbunker.com, which provides market intelligence for the marine fuels business.
“Lasek used confidential and proprietary information belonging to Petromedia in order to create the online publishing platform,” the lawsuit alleges.
Petromedia is seeking $200,000 in damages for loss of profit and market share.
In a response filed June 17, Lasek denied creating a false invoice, and claimed that he used the intranet solely in the course of the freelance work he did for Petromedia.
Lasek also claimed that he and his business partner did not use proprietary information to create their website.
“[The website] was built entirely by the defendants using their own skill, knowledge and know-how,” the response states.
None of the allegations has been proven in court.
