LEGAL DISPUTE CONTINUES BETWEEN ENERGYSOLUTIONS, KURION

A legal dispute between EnergySolutions and Kurion over Kurion’s use of a waste treatment technology has moved into a new round, as EnergySolutions late last week refiled its suit for a third time, this time splitting it between two venues. According to Energy Solutions spokesman Mark Walker, the company has filed against Kurion Vice President and Chief Technology Officer Mark Denton in a New York state court and against Kurion and Kurion President John Raymont in a South Carolina state court, but he declined to expand on the details of the suit. Walker did say that the decision to split the lawsuit venue happened because “a key contract with Denton specifies New York choice of law for disputes and also contains a non-competition clause” while Raymont resided in South Carolina when he was terminated from EnergySolutions. Kurion declined to comment on the new suits.

EnergySolutions has been challenging Kurion’s use of a treatment process that removes radioactive isotopes from liquid using isotope specific media followed by vitrification of the separated isotopes with the media. EnergySolutions claims Denton worked for them on this technology, but he did not file a patent until after he left the company. EnergySolutions first filed suit against Kurion in Utah, asking that the patent be assigned to them and hat Denton be kept from working for Kurion for one year, but the court there dismissed that case over a jurisdictional issue. The company’s second lawsuit, filed in the New York state court in late September, was similar to its initial suit against Kurion, but earlier this month, EnergySolutions pulled the suit again.
 
Kurion, for its part, filed a countersuit in a California state court in the middle of October citing a “breach of contract” and “harm to the company” from the litigation by EnergySolutions, and it is seeking damages and attorney fees. Kurion claims that EnergySolutions is purposefully trying to create a negative public image of a rising competitor through this lawsuit. In Kurion’s suit from mid-October, the company says, “The specter of further baseless litigation by [EnergySolutions] thus continues to hang over [Kurion]. [EnergySolutions] have refused to give up their claims, and still continue to post the March 2013 press release announcing their Utah lawsuit on their website, without including any update to inform its investors and the public that the Utah court has ruled that the action be dismissed,” the suit says. Walker said that EnergySolutions filed a response to these claims last week, but he did not expand on the response.