DALLAS – Oilfield services and industrial equipment supplier Performance Pulsation Control Inc. (PPC) has filed a federal lawsuit and an injunction request, charging that former employee Justin Manley used confidential information and technology to start a competing business while still employed by the company. The federal lawsuit requests a court declaration that PPC is the owner of specific trade secrets and patents that are now being used by Mr. Manley and Sigma Drilling Technologies and seeks monetary damages and attorneys’ fees. Based in Dallas and Odessa, Texas, PPC is a global designer and manufacturer of products designed to increase performance and extend the lifespan of hydraulic systems. The lawsuit names former PPC employee William Garfield, as well as Allison Manley and Pamela Goehring-Garfield as co-defendants.

According to the lawsuit filed by attorney John Palter of Dallas-based Palter Stokley Sims PLLC, Mr. Manley was employed by PPC between May 2012 and April 2016 and was part of a research and development team developing new technology for use in PPC products to improve performance of positive-displacement pump technology common in oil and gas production.

The company’s employment handbook specifically instructs employees to guard the company’s confidential information and refrain from outside employment that competes with PPC or creates a conflict of interest. The lawsuit charges that Mr. Manley secretly formed Sigma Drilling Technologies while employed by PPC, using its trade secrets, marketing materials and other confidential information to compete for business. Mr. Manley even created a Twitter account for his competing business and used the account on behalf of Sigma during PPC’s work hours, according to the lawsuit. In addition to a declaratory judgment, damages and legal fees, the lawsuit seeks rights to the defendants’ patent applications and copyrights of materials and products based on PPC’s proprietary information, including Sigma’s Maintenance-Free Cellular Conversion Kit and a pump baffling system marketed as the Acoustic Assassin. The case is Performance Pulsation Control v Sigma Drilling Technologies et al., filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. For more information, visit http://www.pulsationcontrol.com/.

For more information, contact Robert Tharp at 214-559-4630 or robert@androvett.com