People are buzzing over a recent lawsuit between Chicago’s Intelligentsia Coffee and former COO Bob Quinlan, now of Metropolis Coffee Company.
More from the Naperville Sun (emphasis ours):
Intelligentsia, in legal papers, alleges Quinlan violated a confidentiality agreement he signed upon his “termination” when he alerted the head of Human Resources that she would be losing her job. The suit also alleges that as top boss of Metropolis, Quinlan — if he hasn’t already — would likely divulge Intelligentsia’s trade secrets, also in violation of the confidentiality agreement.
“As CEO of Metropolis, given his knowledge of Intelligentsia’s marketing plans, business plans, pricing, marketing, and sales strategies, coffee roasting and production processes, and its global network of coffee farmers and suppliers, Quinlan has used or disclosed, and/or will inevitably use or disclose Intelligentsia’s confidential information and trade secrets to its direct competitor,” the lawsuit states.
“Quinlan’s inevitable disclosure of Intelligentsia’s trade-secret information will cause Intelligentsia to suffer damages in the form of lost revenue and profits,” the suit states.
Albert F. Ferolie, a River North attorney representing Quinlan, said: “Bob denies the allegations in the complaint.”
Read the whole thing here. For the record (and because it’s germane to this coverage), Intelligentsia is a longstanding sponsor of Sprudge.com; we reached out to them for comment, and they politely declined.
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