More information:
Zuffa Sues Ken Pavia, Bellator for "Alleged Theft of Trade Secrets" [Updated] - Bloody Elbow Quote:
Kevin Iole updated his story with a quote from Bellator attorney Patrick English:
Quote:
“I’ve looked at the paperwork, and I understand what’s going on here, and it is literally much ado about very little,” English said.
“There were documents sent by Mr. Pavia to Bellator, but they are not of a competitive nature and they would give no advantage or disadvantage to the viewer. The bulk of them in no way, shape or form would be considered confidential and are not what I consider to be documents that Zuffa should be concerned about.
“I did attempt to reach out to Zuffa [Thursday] and, unfortunately, have not gotten a return call. It happens that Bellator has not used any of the documents in any case.”
| |
And Justin Klein over at the Fight Lawyer also breaks down the complaint:
Quote:
At the outset, from the face of the complaint, it is not clear what information was allegedly disclosed that is subject to trade secret protection. That said, Zuffa alleges that it doesn't know yet what "all" of the seminal documents are and so it would be pretty difficult to allege the confidential terms with any sort of specificity. Zuffa certainly seems to have enough to assert the claim.
In this regard, what you pay someone, who you deal with, or the duration of an exclusive contract could be a trade secret as could idiosyncratic or confidential business terms. That said, if stuff like that was redacted (that is, if the allegedly confidential information was whited out), then this would severely undercut any potential trade secret claim. In fact (and this is more complicated), if the confidential information was redacted, copyright preemption would likely come into play to bar a claim based upon retyping and rephrasing the non-confidential sections of the documents.
Next, it seems plausible from the allegations that the Doe defendants are fighters that allegedly had these confidential agreements with Zuffa and that the Roe defendants are plausibly venues and/or sponsors that allegedly had agreements with Zuffa that contained allegedly confidential or proprietary information.
Finally, and as an interesting competition point, assuming the case goes forward, Zuffa should get access to the Bellator agreements in discovery -- although this will likely be subject to a protective order that provides that the agreements are for "attorney's eyes only."
|
LOL....so Zuffa's idea is to sue first, and the information/documentation will come later. And I mean much much later.
I suspect Pavia is currently burning all documentation and evidence, and I doubt this case will actually go in front of a court in the next year or 2, if ever....I just hope that this doesn't affect any of the fighters that Ken has.
PS. Would be nice if Zuffa went public...then we might know how much they actually make.
Linear Mode
