Crain’s Grand Rapids Business reports that Meijer is being accused by a Florida self-checkout company of stealing its intellectual property and proprietary technology.
According to the story, “The allegations surfaced in a Sept. 28 complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan, in which Tampa, Fla.-based Mad Mobile Inc. claims Meijer Great Lakes Limited Partnership stole and continues to use its proprietary technology, despite Meijer severing its contract agreement with the company.
“The developer asked the court for a preliminary injunction against Meijer, saying it was being ‘irreparably harmed’ by the retailer’s continued use of its proprietary software.
“While the court dismissed the case earlier this month, ruling in favor of Meijer’s motion to compel arbitration to resolve the dispute, legal filings from both sides detail a fraught relationship between the two companies.”
Mad Mobile has charged that during the course of their relationship, the Meijer team “coaxed” its own developers to divulge proprietary technology, including source code, and now, after terminating the relationship, is “continuing to build out the software and business processes. Meijer recently admitted that, for months, it took no efforts to sequester that team or prevent its misuse of Mad Mobile’s proprietary technology.”
Meijer, for its part, says that “it paid Mad Mobile a sum of nearly $8.5 million but ‘never received’ the software it required, stating that the developer delivered software that was filled with bugs, did not function reliably and failed to meet the retailer’s design specifications. ‘Mad Mobile missed critical deadlines and blew its budget repeatedly, even after Meijer made a series of concessions regarding budget and deadlines,'” the retailer said.
Mad Mobile maintains that Meijer “‘repeatedly requested changes’ to the software it was developing, leading to delays and additional demands on the company. Mad Mobile alleges in court filings that it employed a team of 38 people to work with Meijer to develop the software, the cost of which was ‘more than twice its total revenue from Meijer,’ or approximately $1 million monthly.”
The dispute now will be resolved in arbitration.
KC’s View:
I wonder how often this happens.
Seems pretty simple to me: If Mad Mobile was not delivering software that met spec, then it does behoove Meijer to take matters into its own hands. However, if Meijer was moving the goalposts with the objective of stealing IP, then that is well out of bounds.
I’m rooting for the truth to come out – and for justice to be delivered.
The post Meijer Sued For Theft Of Proprietary Technology appeared first on MNB.
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