ATLANTA–LAWFUEL – The Law Newswire – A leader in the science of converting biomass to energy, Atlanta-based SilvaGas Corporation, then FERCO Enterprises, filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia in 2005 after former employee Mark Paisley left and joined Taylor Recycling/Taylor Biomass LLC.
In the complaint, FERCO alleged not only that the defendants misappropriated its trade secrets, but also that Paisley breached his fiduciary duty to FERCO by surreptitiously working for Taylor while still employed at FERCO.
It is FERCO’s opinion that Paisley took FERCO’s trade secrets with him and used them to create a biomass gasification system similar to FERCO’s within weeks of his resignation from FERCO.
U.S. District Court Judge Orinda Evans recently ruled in favor of FERCO on two of three motions in the case. Due to the defendants’ frivolous discovery conduct, Judge Evans ordered the defendants to pay sanctions to FERCO. In addition, she ruled that the defendants’ counterclaims against FERCO and its primary investor should be dismissed.
FERCO, however, respectfully disagrees with Judge Evans’ ruling against FERCO on its claim that Paisley and Taylor misappropriated FERCO’s trade secrets, and FERCO has filed an appeal. Once the issues are laid out clearly, FERCO is confident that it will win its appeal to the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
“We still fully and totally believe Paisley has wrongfully misappropriated our trade secrets. We intend to vigorously protect our proprietary technology and trade secrets from such misappropriation whenever and wherever it occurs,” declared Milton Farris, President and CEO of SilvaGas Corporation.
The SilvaGas process, invented in the 1990s, is a proven, sustainable, cost-efficient method of converting a wide range of agricultural and forest waste into a medium-Btu product gas that can then be burned as a fuel to create electricity, provide a heat source for industrial uses and be converted into useful products such as biodiesel, cellulosic ethanol and hydrogen.
For more information, please visit www.silvagas.com.
