Kaplan Resolves Lawsuit Against Dalton for Alleged Misappropriation of Trade Secrets
September 02 2020 - 8:30AM
Business Wire
Kaplan North America, a division of global education provider
Kaplan, Inc., has settled its federal lawsuit against a competitor,
Dalton Education, LLC after Dalton terminated certain employees and
agreed to terms including verifying that it no longer possesses
Kaplan’s asserted trade secrets. Kaplan’s original complaint
alleged nine counts of unlawful behavior, including trade secrets
misappropriation, computer fraud and abuse, and tortious
interference. Kaplan previously settled with two former Kaplan
employees who were also named as defendants in the lawsuit. Both
companies provide continuing education, licensing and certification
for employees in the wealth management and financial analysis
fields and compete for the same or similar clients.
In early 2019 Kaplan discovered that its former employees were
hired by Dalton and took valuable and confidential Kaplan
documents, including sensitive pricing and client strategy
information, as they left Kaplan. Kaplan took immediate action to
protect its intellectual property and prevent Dalton from unfairly
using this information. Kaplan filed a federal lawsuit and
subsequently discovered that the former employees shared the
confidential Kaplan documents with a Dalton manager. Additionally,
Kaplan discovered that a third Kaplan employee, a senior executive
who joined Dalton last summer, emailed extensive Kaplan trade
secrets related to its Chartered Financial Analyst (“CFA”) business
to an executive at a Dalton affiliate and met with Dalton owners to
discuss starting a competing CFA business, all while still employed
by Kaplan. This individual is still employed at Dalton and agreed
to be personally bound by the settlement terms. As a result of the
lawsuit, Dalton also terminated certain employees and conducted
comprehensive company-wide forensic analysis and electronic
remediation to ensure that all of Kaplan’s confidential information
was purged from Dalton’s systems and cannot be used.
The settlement requires Dalton to ensure that it no longer
possesses certain alleged Kaplan trade secrets and prevents Dalton
from using any of that information in the future. In addition, the
former Kaplan executive who shared Kaplan’s CFA trade secrets will
be required to provide affirmations assuring, under penalty of
perjury, that he no longer has, and has not used, any such Kaplan
confidential or proprietary information to support Dalton.
"Our goal was to stop Dalton from using confidential Kaplan
information to compete unfairly in the marketplace,” said Andrew
Temte, President and Global Head of Corporate Learning for Kaplan
North America. “I wish it was not necessary to file a lawsuit but
we are satisfied with the results and that Dalton agreed to our
terms."
Kaplan will continue to take quick and aggressive steps where
necessary to protect its valuable intellectual property and trade
secrets and to ensure fair competition in the education, licensure,
and test preparation sectors.
About Kaplan
Kaplan provides individuals, universities, and businesses a
broad array of educational services, including higher and
professional education, test preparation, language training,
corporate and leadership training, and student recruitment, online
enablement and other university support services. With operations
in nearly 30 countries, Kaplan serves nearly 1.1 million students
each year and has partnerships with 2,000-plus universities,
colleges, and schools/school districts, and more than 4,000
businesses globally. Kaplan is a subsidiary of Graham Holdings
Company (NYSE: GHC). For more information, please visit
www.kaplan.com.
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Press Contact: Russell Schaffer, russell.schaffer@kaplan.com,
917.822.8190 Twitter: @KapTestNews
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