Price-Meister has agreed to settle in a lawsuit brought by Broker Genius, making what was a temporary injunction permanent, according to a release by the New York-based pricing software company. The lawsuit, filed on November 3, alleged that Matthew Berry, GenTech Enterprises LLC and Select Seats LLC – doing business as Price-Meister – used proprietary knowledge gained while using Broker Genius as a client to build their own similar product.
That suit is one of three that Broker Genius has filed in the past year, including one against Seat Scouts in November, previously reported, and a newly discovered suit against NRZ Entertainment and principals Nathan Zalta and Michael Shamah filed in March, all alleging similar misappropriation of intellectual property by nascent competitors.
In the Price-Meister matter, a settlement and agreement to the permanent injunction was reached just ten days after the lawsuit was filed, according to the release. Price-Meister is said to be “permanently restrained and enjoined from directly or indirectly: using, distributing, making available by sale or otherwise, any software product derived from Broker Genius’ Auto Pricer product, including the Price-Meister product at issue in this case.”
“Although taking legal action is not our preferred course of action, we must use governing laws to protect our intellectual property. This case and those similar to it not only effect Broker Genius but all companies who rely on intellectual property and trade secret protection to further advance their technology,” continued the statement, signed by Broker Genius CEO Sam Sherman.
Read more about the Price-Meister and Seat Scouts on TicketNews here. The full statement by Broker Genius is included at the bottom of this post.
Broker Genius Lawsuit vs. NRZ Entertainment
Following our reporting on the lawsuits brought against Price-Meister and Seat Scouts, it was pointed out by an anonymous tipster that Broker Genius had also filed suit in similar fashion earlier this year against NRZ Entertainment, alleging that its principals had gained access to Broker Genius proprietary information while customers and then used that information to build a competing product.
Specifically, the lawsuit alleges that the defendants were shown a demonstration of its Price Genius product – which it describes in the suit as “employing many of the same proprietary and trade secret underlying structures, features, and functionalities as Auto Pricer – in May of 2015. The defendants had access to that program for several months on a trial basis, then began accessing Auto Pricer on a trial basis in December of 2015, after which a one year full access contract was signed in February of 2016.
The suit alleges that the defendants, with full access to the proprietary function of Broker Genius products and under terms of use that explicitly forbade reverse engineering of that function, registered the web domain Tickpricer.com. In December, the defendants announced their decision to terminate their contract with Broker Genius.
Following the formal termination of that contract in January, Broker Genius says it discovered the Tickpricer.com website in March of 2017, finding it to have “user interface and ticket pricing and inventory management features and functionalities” that were “substantially similar and in some cases essentially identical to and derived from its Auto Pricer Product and Service.” Following that discovery, Broker Genius claims that their business was injured several times by this competing product, as they lost or were forced to offer discounts to existing clients who opted to move to Tickpricer.com
The lawsuit was filed on March 23rd. Tickpricer.com remains operational as of November 22nd 2018, as the case is still winding its way through the pre-trial process. Read the full complaint here
Broker Genius Statement on Price-Meister Injunction
On Friday Nov. 17th, Judge Stein entered a Permanent Injunction against the owners of the Price-Meister product. On November 8th, 2017, a Temporary Restraining Order was entered against the parties behind the Price-Meister product and their affiliates barring their use and/or disclosure of Broker Genius’ trade secrets and proprietary information of the Auto Pricer product. A settlement agreement and consent to a permanent injunction against Price-Meister was achieved just 10 days later. The court order requires those involved in Price-Meister to be “permanently restrained and enjoined from directly or indirectly: using, distributing, making available by sale or otherwise, any software product derived from Broker Genius’ Auto Pricer product, including the Price-Meister product at issue in this case.”
Although taking legal action is not our preferred course of action, we must use governing laws to protect our intellectual property. This case and those similar to it not only effect Broker Genius but all companies who rely on intellectual property and trade secret protection to further advance their technology.
As the pioneer and industry leader of dynamic pricing technology, Broker Genius will continue to innovate to ensure our clients continue outperforming the market. We are excited to unveil many new game changing features in the very near future, many of which will be available before the new year.
Sincerely,
Sam Sherman, Founder and CEO