shutterstock_1399561367_lev_radin
29 October 2020Sarah Morgan

Bezos-backed UK startup sued over trade secret theft

The founder of UK startup Beacon Technologies has been accused of stealing trade secrets from a California-based logistics company while he served as a board member.

In its suit, filed on Tuesday, October 27, at the US District Court for the Central District of California, Vanguard Logistics Services claimed that Beacon founder Fraser Robinson had “deceptively used his positions of trust as a consultant, advisor, board member, and fiduciary to gain access to, and steal, Vanguard’s most valuable property”.

Robinson, who co-founded logistics and supply chain finance startup Beacon in 2018, had previously led Uber’s business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

In June this year, Beacon raised more than $15 million in its Series A fundraising round, with investors including Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon, and US venture capital firm 8VC.

Vanguard accused Robinson of conspiring with former Uber executive Dmitri Izmailov (who co-founded Beacon with him) to steal its plans, data, technology, and IP, and create a “copycat competitor”.

Some of the allegedly stolen information includes data on pricing, schedules, and pickup and delivery locations; pricing logic and algorithms; and prototypes, models, and plans.

According to the suit, Robinson “defrauded and preyed upon Vanguard,” taking what he could from its officers, employees, and networks and even misappropriated its colour scheme and website design from prototypes that were secret at the time.

Vanguard said it has suffered and continues to suffer “significant damages” and that it was also seeking injunctive relief against Robinson and Beacon.

A spokesperson for Beacon said: “We are surprised to hear that Vanguard have filed these proceedings. The papers have not yet been issued by the court and have not been served. What we have seen so far is an ill-thought out action which is entirely without merit and which has been brought in the wrong jurisdiction. Any claim will be robustly defended.”

Did you enjoy reading this story?  Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories sent like this straight to your inbox

Today’s top stories

UKIPO releases Brexit guidance; launches AI-powered tool

Ninth Circuit won’t review Qualcomm victory over FTC

Clarivate expands in Asia with Chinese merger

Already registered?

Login to your account

To request a FREE 2-week trial subscription, please signup.
NOTE - this can take up to 48hrs to be approved.

Two Weeks Free Trial

For multi-user price options, or to check if your company has an existing subscription that we can add you to for FREE, please email Adrian Tapping at atapping@newtonmedia.co.uk


More on this story

Patents
26 October 2020   The English Court of Appeal has applied UK trade secret regulations to uphold an interim injunction for the first time, blocking the importation of battery components that infringe trade secrets. Oliver Laing of Potter Clarkson reports.
article
4 November 2020   The European Commission has referred Cyprus to the EU’s highest court for not transposing the trade secrets directive.
Trademarks
25 February 2021   The Bezos Family Foundation, a non-profit organisation run by the family of Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, has lost its appeal against a trademark invalidation at the EU General Court.