CHARLOTTE, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A jury in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division, found late Friday that Steves & Sons (“Steves”) misappropriated eight distinct trade secrets owned and used by JELD-WEN Holding, Inc. (NYSE:JELD) (“JELD-WEN” or the “Company”) in its molded doorskin manufacturing business. Finding violations of both the U.S. Defend Trade Secrets Act and the Texas Uniform Trade Secrets Act, the jury awarded JELD-WEN $1.2 million in damages. JELD-WEN intends to ask the trial court to impose permanent injunctive relief, prohibiting Steves’ further use of JELD-WEN’s trade secrets.
During the course of proceedings in the underlying antitrust and contract case, JELD-WEN discovered that Steves had paid certain of the Company’s former employees to divulge trade secret information regarding various aspects of its molded doorskin manufacturing business. JELD-WEN filed counterclaims against Steves, but pursuant to a pretrial bifurcation order by the court, JELD-WEN was required to try the trade secrets claims separately from the antitrust and contract claims. JELD-WEN intends to pursue vigorously its appeal of the earlier verdict and to include the bifurcation order as one of the issues on appeal. The appellate process is expected to last well into 2019.
JELD-WEN’s claims against Edward and Sam Steves, Chief Executive Officer and President, respectively, of Steves, as well as John Pierce, a former employee of the Company, for breach of contract, tortious interference, breach of fiduciary duty, and aiding and abetting breaches of fiduciary duty in connection with the theft and misappropriation of trade secrets and confidential information remain pending in Bexar County, Texas.
About JELD-WEN
JELD-WEN, founded in 1960, is one of the world’s largest door and window manufacturers, operating manufacturing facilities in 20 countries located primarily in North America, Europe and Australia. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., JELD-WEN designs, produces and distributes an extensive range of interior and exterior doors, wood, vinyl and aluminum windows and related products for use in the new construction and repair and remodeling of residential homes and non-residential buildings. JELD-WEN is a recognized leader in manufacturing energy-efficient products and has been an ENERGY STAR® Partner since 1998. Our products are marketed globally under the JELD-WEN® brand, along with several market-leading regional brands such as Swedoor® and DANA® in Europe and Corinthian®, Stegbar®, and Trend® in Australia. For more information visit www.jeld-wen.com.
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