GasTOPS wins Legal Battle against MxI Technology Co-Founders

Ottawa, Canada (28 September 2009): Justice B. T. Granger of the Ontario Superior Court has ordered Bradley Forsyth, Douglas Brouse, Jeff Cass, Robert Vandenberg and MxI Technologies to pay GasTOPS more than $11.4M in damages for misappropriation of GasTOPS’ confidential business information and trade secrets, breach of their obligations as key employees of GasTOPS, and misappropriation of GasTOPS’ business opportunities. In addition to the award of  $11.4M, Justice Granger will also entertain submissions concerning pre-judgment interest and costs.

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MxI was formed in October 1996 by Forsyth and Brouse, just days after their abrupt resignations from GasTOPS, along with two other key GasTOPS’ employees, Cass and Vandenberg. GasTOPS subsequently initiated a legal action against its former employees and MxI for breach of fiduciary duty and failure to give proper notice.  After learning that MxI had usurped a significant business opportunity of GasTOPS to provide engine configuration management and parts life tracking software to the US Navy for their F/A-18 aircraft fleet, the company expanded its claims against the Defendants to include misappropriation of intellectual property and business opportunities. The trial in this action commenced in 2002, concluded in 2006, and lasted 295 days.

 In his Reasons for Judgment, released on 25 September 2009, Justice Granger concluded that “In addition to the defendants failing to give reasonable notice and using confidential business information belonging to GasTOPS to pursue GasTOPS‘ customers or potential customers I have found that MxI‘s product Maintenix was a fourth iteration of GasTOPS‘ products…Accordingly when the defendants pursued GasTOPS‘ customers or potential customers, they did so with a product that was developed using GasTOPS‘ confidential business information “.

“This has been a time consuming process” according to Dave Muir, GasTOPS’ President and CEO, “but we were confident throughout that the Defendants would be held accountable for the improper conduct outline by Justice Granger. We are extremely pleased with this result and grateful to our legal counsel, Shields and Hunt, for their outstanding work on our behalf”.

About GasTOPS Ltd.
GasTOPS provides advanced products and services that improve the productivity and safety of mission-critical equipment in Defence, Aviation, Marine, Energy and Transportation applications worldwide. For more than 30 years, the company has supplied innovative fluid sensing and analysis systems and specialized engineering and technical services for the development and support of machinery condition monitoring, control and maintenance systems. For more information, please visit www.gastops.com

About Shields and Hunt
Shields & Hunt is one of the leading employment law, civil litigation and labour law firms in the Nation's Capital.  The firm is recognized both locally and nationally as having focused expertise in each of its core practice areas - complex employment-related matters, personal injury, human rights, commercial litigation and trade union representation.  The litigators at Shields & Hunt are highly respected within their areas of practice, being consulted by both clients and peer members of the bar alike.
For more information, visit www.shields-hunt.com.

Contact:
Dave Muir, President and CEO,
GasTOPS Ltd.
(613) 744-3530