RI Business Alleges Former Employee “Maliciously and Willfully” Stole Trade Secrets

RI Business Alleges Former Employee “Maliciously and Willfully” Stole Trade Secrets

A Rhode Island business has filed a lawsuit against a former employee, alleging that he “misappropriated” trade secrets.

In a twelve-page lawsuit filed in federal court, Vision 3 Architects — which is based in Providence — claims that “longtime employee,” defendant Joseph Caldeira, took confidential and proprietary information with him to his new employer. 

“Defendant maliciously and willfully misappropriated Vision 3’s Trade Secret Information by disclosure for the benefit of a direct competitor of Vision 3,” says the lawsuit. 

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According to the lawsuit, Caldeira was employed at Vision 3 from 1996 through 2020, and had access to Vision 3’s proprietary materials, which are explained in the lawsuit as the following. 

“Vision 3 has invested significant time and resources into developing a fully customized Revit template (the ‘Revit Template’). Specifically, Vision 3 has developed various algorithms, formulas, and similar tools that enable it to create designs efficiently, correctly, and at a lower cost to its clients, which put it at a bidding and execution advantage against its competitors.”

The lawsuit continues:

“Unauthorized access to and use of Vision 3’s Revit Template would allow competitors to capitalize on Vision 3’s cache of expertise as competitors could use Vision 3’s Revit Template to create drawings and renderings for customers with increased ease and efficiency without the burden of time, expenses, and technical experience. Such use of Vision 3’s Revit Template would put Vision 3 at a severe and unfair competitive advantage.”

According to the allegations in the suit, on June 2, 2020, the day before Defendant left his employment with Vision 3, Defendant transferred these design documents to Vision 3’s client Groov-pin, via an electronic file transfer.” 

Caldeira then began working for Starck, a competitor based out of Fall River, Massachusetts. 

Discovering Use of Confidential Information at Competitor 

In March 2022, according to the lawsuit, Vision 3 Principal Paul Hauser received a request to review architectural plans for the company Southstream Foods, which had been prepared by Starck.

“Upon reviewing the Southstream Seafoods architectural plans, Mr. Hauser formed a reasonable believe that Vision 3’s Revit Template had been used to create the architectural plans,” states the lawsuit. 

According to the lawsuit, Vision informed Starck of what they discovered, and Starck promptly fired Caldeira. 

Moreover, Starck “found documents in Defendants office, identified them as belonging to Vision 3, and returned them to Vision 3" and agreed to a forensic audit. 

The lawsuit continues:

The four-count lawsuit alleges the violation of the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016; violation of the Rhode Island Uniform Trade Secrets Act; breach of fiduciary duty; and intentional interference with prospective contractual relations. 

Vision 3 requested that the court grant a temporary restraining order to prohibit Caldeira from further use of Vision 3’s materials. 

Jeffrey Brenner, the attorney for Vision 3, declined to comment when reached. 

Multiple efforts to reach Caldeira were unsuccessful.