Point taken. In this case, the majority of Specialized customers will never hear of this suit. Now, if you were a Utility Company or a Car Manufacturer, you would probably look at it differently, since the media would put this kind of thing on the airwaves to fill the 24 hour channels.

It's not just about current employees, it's about all their intellectual property. That's a funny thing about intellectual property: if you don't defend it all the time, every time, you can end up losing it when it counts. You can't just decide to let one case of intellectual property theft slide, because that becomes evidence in future unforeseen circumstances. Companies have to protect their property all the time, or they might not be able to when they need to most.

And really, these guys were REALLY dumb for how they did this, especially for guys who like to brag about how many patents they have. The answer is obvious: you have an idea, you have to offer it to your boss. Sure, they might have passed, but you have to offer it. If Specialized says "nah, we don't like the idea", then get it in writing, patent it, and start your own company. If Specialized says "we like the idea, we'll patent it, but we don't want to make it" then you start your own company and license the patent. If Specialized loves the idea, patents it, and builds the bike, then sure you won't get your own company, but at least there's a good chance you'll make a lot of money off of it anyway.

Perhaps they got legal advice that they were screwed so their best option was to cry Bully! :cry:

Yeah, that is a possibility.

Cliff notes on facts? Or is it just both sides and hearsay like most legal cases?

The local Los Angeles news ran the story a couple nights ago. Specialized declined to comment. The Volagi guys were singing like canaries.

I know I should ignore it, but for some reason it annoys me when people quote me and then ramble on with no relevance to what I said.

I wasn't assuming anything, and if you had read the context in which my post appeared you would know that.

Not if they won't work for you. Spending money does not equate to talent it equates to higher paid employees and nothing more.

Here's a timeline, straight from the mouth of one of Volagi's founders:

January 2010: Volagi founders had the concept for what would become the Liscio, and did a sketch to document the concept.

April 2010: Founders gave notice to and departed from Specialized to start Volagi. They admit that before they left, they downloaded and kept Specialized proprietary sales call reports and possibly other information. They also admit to using Specialized corporate email accounts to contact Volagi vendors before leaving in April.

October 2010: Volagi displays Liscio concept at Interbike.

November 2010: Specialized files suit

Specialized hasn't said and Choi's comments have often been quite confusing, but the suit is probably based largely on the fact that since the idea for the Liscio was conceived while they still worked at Specialized, the relevant patents and intellectual property actually belong to Specialized due to patent assignment contracts. Add in the blatant, admitted theft of proprietary sales call reports and the use of Specialized company resources to conduct Volagi business, and it's pretty ugly.

Are you kidding me? PR/marketing consultancies and boutique firms run by talented hired guns are always available to write, put in place, then execute a plan for these kinda problems. I know b/cos I have some experience supervising marketing strategy for a bank I worked for.

It is critical in banking to have sound PR shelf plans in place b/cos of a potential run on deposits that can come from negative publicity.

That guy from Volagi has torpedoed himself by commenting so much and in such detail. I am sure his lawyer told him to STFU but damned if he didn't listen.

Makes me wonder if he knew he was dead meat all along and is trying to use social media to put pressure on Specialized, and hoping that Specialized will cut a deal.

"According to the Mercury News, Specialized had to put aside some of their most serious claims of trade secret theft when the judge curtailed the scope of the suit. They're instead seeking at least $41,500 in damages to send a message about employees setting up a rival company while already in employment."

Verdict is expected in the next few hours.

Articles like this won't do much to encourage Specialized to back down!

http://volagi.wordpress.com/2012/01/...of-the-future/

Or in other words, Specialized tried to bury them with legal fees.

It's sad this suit was about $41k. The trial itself would have cost the parties a small fortune. Stupid lawyers.

Specialized just won the damages portion... a whole $1.00. $0.45 after lawyer fees. HAHAHAHAHA

:roflmao2::roflmao2::roflmao2:

So now my question is whether or not Volagi can go back after specialized for lawyer fees for this, as I recall they were in about 200K in lawyers to defend themselves.

No they can't, unfortunately -- at least not for the part of the case they lost. They should however be able to recoup fees for the one Specialized dropped/had thrown out by the judge.

Wow Specialized really sucks

A little old of a post, but from the "WeKeepYouCycling" FB page:

It seems Volagi may walk away with a $41K financial hit (plus legal fees). If you've not been following this, Volagi is a recent start up from former Specialized employes who started a competing frame company. Specialized had trouble proving technology was stolen from them in the court case, however based on the tweets it seems they still may have to pay for contract violations- as they discussed the new company while at Specialized. We hope this has been the best PR campaign for the new company. Sales have sky rocketed since the lawsuit.



I like the very last sentence. Hopefully this is enough to pay their legal fees AND buy their houses back!

It would be worthy to note that this litigation has made it to quite a few cycling news sites -- and while they might not be able to recoup all attorney fees, they've gotten a hell of a lot of free advertising/pr for their company.

The free advertising and the timing of the VeloNews Buyer's Guide couldn't have been better for them. I got it yesterday.

FYI, Volagi just tweeted as a reply to someone that they've incurred roughly 400K in attorney fees. Yikes :(

Edit: Just like I said about the dropped trade secrets portion:

Choi said they would, however, explore the possibility of recouping some of their own legal expenses. “Because they completely dropped the trade secret part of the suit, it allows us to go and potentially file suit for malicious prosecution,” said Choi. “We would obviously like to get our legal fees back and the damages that have been caused.”

Just wow! Volagi gets to keep the patent on the design, it looks like.

Awesome. I think this is a great day for all cycling enthusiasts. More bike companies is good.