In a new development of the ongoing legal battle by Broker Genius, the software company’s motion for a preliminary injunction in a suit against NRZ Entertainment LLC was denied by the United States District Court in the Southern District of New York on December 4, 2017.
Broker Genius, a company that develops software for the secondary ticket industry, has sued three companies – NRZ, Seat Scouts, and Price-Meister – alleging that all used access to its proprietary system while BG clients to build broker pricing intelligence products to compete with BG’s existing product, AutoPricer.
According to the complaint, Broker Genius alleges that the defendants “misappropriated Broker Genius’s trade secrets, engaged in copyright infringement, breached their contractual obligations and the implied duty of good faith and fair dealing, unjustly enriched themselves, and tortiously interfered with Broker Genius’s current and prospective business relations.”
In the suit against Broker Genius’ former licensees Nathan Zalta and Michael Shamah, and their Brooklyn, New York-based company, NRZ Entertainment LLC, U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein ruled the following:
“Because Broker Genius discloses the information that it alleges to be its trade secrets to each of its licensees as a matter of course and because it has not shown that it required those licensees to maintain the confidentiality of user‐facing elements of the AutoPricer v.3 software, plaintiff has established neither a likelihood of success on the merits nor sufficiently serious questions going to the merits of its trade secret misappropriation claims. Accordingly, plaintiff’s motion for a preliminary injunction is denied.”
The lawsuit was filed on March 23, 2017, and at the same time requested that the Court issue a temporary restraining order to seize any property of the defendants containing BG trade secrets. The Court directed NRZ, Zalta, and Shamah “not to access or disclose Broker Genius’s proprietary technology or information, not to violate any confidentiality obligations owed to Broker Genius, and not to destroy evidence” but denied Broker Genius’ requests to seize defendants’ computers and prevent them from marketing the TickPricer product.
As for the other two defendants, Price-Meister accepted the permanent injunction and shut down operations in late November, and the suit against Seat Scouts is ongoing.
