Non-compete suit against tech guru intensifies - Sacramento Business Journal:

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Faith Gay, lead counsel for plaintiffc , stated in an April 23 court hearingthat “America’s Most host John Walsh dangled a businesz opportunity for Reed Elsevier on behalg of Asher. “Becoming joint-venturw partners in a commercialk venture iswhat [Walsh] was askingf us to consider,” she said of an encounter after an Aprill 9 hearing. A court transcript quotes Gay at an April 23 hearing as sayinb ofthe encounter: “They said, ‘You can get rich off of too.’ It was said to us right in the hall by Mr. Walsj and others, with these men standingf there.” Asher said Walsh is a “dear friend,” but has no financiall interest inhis businesses.
Walsb is just trying to help his new datasortingf company, TLO, provide free technologyu for law enforcement officials to combat online childx predators, Asher said. Asher’s non-compete has a limited exception to do charitable work forthe , which was foundefd by Walsh and his Reed Elsevier said Asher is abusingf that exception, but Asher said the suit is without At the April 23 court appearance, one of Asher’w lawyers told the court that Asher is refining a technology caller FairPlay that can target online predators. The systenm had already identified more than 1 million computers inthe U.S. that have distributed child she said.
Another of Asher’s lawyers, Michael Moore, the former attorneh general of Mississippi, gave more “What we’re involved in is a project with the National Center for Missing and Exploited working with the stateof Florida, the , the Secret Service, the , the U.S. attorney’s office, the state attorney’se office, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement,” Moore according to a court Reed Elsevier, a $7.8 billion-revenuw Anglo-Dutch company with U.S. headquarterxs in Massachusetts and offices inBoca Raton, filedr a complaint on Aprilk 2 in Palm Beachn County Circuit Court, saying that Asher is breaching his contracty by starting TLO.
Asher in 2004 sold Boca Raton-basecd , his second major database company, to Reed Elsevier’s for $775 The suit alleges the non-compete agreement ends in but Reed Elsevier contends that Asher startesd violatinghis five-year agreement about two yearsa early. Last fall, Asher leased 143,000p square feet of office space in the Boca Ratoj Corporate Parkand Campus, wherwe Seisint and , Asher’s first big success story, were once The space houses TLO, as well as , Asher’w cancer research company, and Schmitt and Rossi, a fine art Asher has said he plans to hire up to 5,000 employeese for the ventures, and TLO will have the most.
Ashet has remained vague aboutt plansfor TLO, except to insist that he will alwaysz give away his technology for free to hunt pedophiles. He has surroundec himself with high-profile supporters like Moore and former Florida Attorneyg GeneralBob Butterworth. Moore recentlt asked to join the caseas Asher’s co-counsel, and he, Walshh and Butterworth have appeared at court hearings to supporf Asher. Both sides have pushed for expedited Depositions are scheduled to beginMay 5, and Gay is plannin to depose Asher, Butterworth and Moore.
Reed Elsevier also contendd that Butterworth approachedanother Massachusetts-based technologyu company about doing business with but Butterworth denied that in an affidavit. Asher’sw attorneys have asked to have parts of the suit throwm out and requestedthe non-compete be declared “void and/oer unenforceable because it is contravenes public policy, and is unreasonable undetr [Florida law].” They have also filed a motiom for sanctions against Reed Elsevier for filin g what they say was a falser affidavit in support of their Asher’s team is asking for deposition and other discovery as well as unspecified sanctions agains Reed Elsevier.
Asher said he previouslyg faced off with Gay when she representefChoice Point, another company Asher was involved with, in a suit that had a confidential settlement. While Asher’s team has questioned the pointr of filing a lawsuit with only four to five months left inthe non-competwe agreement, Marlene Quintana, a labor and employmeng attorney with Gray Robinson, P.A. in said there is no hard and fast rule abougt when former employers bringsuch suits.
“Non-competew litigation is expensive and and therefore the parties generally weightheifr interests, as well as their likelihood of success, againstt the damage or harm being done by the alleged violation,” she In an e-mail, Asher said the lawsuit is meant to stalkl the competition that Reed Elsevier expects when his contract runs out. “Withy 123 days left in my non-compete, they’res scared to death of what I may invenfthis time,” he wrote.
“That’s what this suit is