Ultimate Combustion Co. v. Fuecotech, Inc., Helpful Tech, Inc., Victor Gurin & Roman Press, Case No. 12-CV-60545-WPD (S.D. Fla.)
Oct 03, 2014OUTCOME: Obtained a Temporary and Permanent Injunction, and recovered Judgment for all of the client’s fees and costs
Ultimate Combustion Company (UCC) is a Florida-based engineering company specializing in the design and manufacture of innovative technologies to improve the efficiency of liquid fuel engines. UCC was ... formed in late 2006 when Defendant Gurin approached a group of private investors for funding in connection with the research and development of a project. In October of 2006, UCC hired Defendant Press to act as a consultant in the company’s research and development efforts. In August of 2008, Gurin resigned his position as an employee and VP of Technology for UCC, but remained an active shareholder in the company, bound by the terms of the Shareholder Agreement. On or about June 21, 2009, while still a shareholder of UCC, Gurin surreptitiously executed a document which purported to assign his “entire right, title and interest, domestic and foreign, in and to the inventions and discoveries in” patents owned by UCC to Defendant Helpful Technologies, a company whose President is Gurin’s son, Sergey Gurin. On December 05, 2010, Helpful Technologies assigned the “entire right, title and interest, domestic and foreign in and to the inventions and discoveries in” the Patents to Defendant Fuecotech via an assignment which suggests that Fuecotech paid Helpful Technologies $6,703,033.00, which was learned to be false. Upon UCC’s discovery of the conduct by the defendants, UCC forwarded a letter placing the defendants on notice of their infringing conduct and demanded the immediate cessation of such conduct. The defendants failed and refused to comply with these demands and continued to infringe upon UCC’s patent rights and to capitalize upon trade secret and proprietary business information which they misappropriated from UCC; thereby necessitating the lawsuit.
