at ¶ 6.) In connection with the promotion, Gray's salary was increased to $100,000, he was asked to *496 execute an employment agreement (the "Employment Agreement"), and he was paid $5,000 as a signing bonus. at ¶ 5.) In April of 1999, Gray was promoted to be the Vice-President of Operations at Jetsort. Jetsort's unique process allows it a competitive advantage over all other mail presorters, except now CMS has wrongfully begun using Jetsort's knowledge." ( Id.)ĭefendant Gray was employed in a management capacity at Jetsort beginning in 1992. at ¶ 4.) According to Jetsort, "ll other mail pre-sorters used flow-through charges for any additional postage assessed a given customer's mail. Jetsort claims to have been the only company in the mid-Atlantic region to offer a fixed pricing structure until defendant CMS began offering the same. at ¶ 5.) The "industry standard" pricing scheme is referred to as "flow through" pricing. ( Id.) Armed with its ability to predict its customers' mailing patterns, Jetsort "combines this knowledge in a proprietary manner that allows it to offer its customers a fixed-fee, guaranteed rate of postage for their mailing as opposed to the industry standard of charging a processing fee, plus an additional postage assessed by the U.S.P.S. ( Id.) This scheme also allows it to predict how many envelopes will have readable zip-codes. at ¶ 3.) Jetsort claims that it has developed a proprietary scheme that allows it to sort and commingle the mail in a manner that maximizes customer discounts. at ¶¶ 2-3.) In this way it provides each customer with the ability to obtain greater discounts than would be possible on the customer's own behalf. at ¶ 3.) Because its customers do not always send out sufficient quantities of mail each day to obtain maximum discounts, Jetsort combines mail from different customers to maximize discounts with the United States Postal Service ("U.S.P.S."). ¶ 2.) According to Jetsort, it uses sophisticated hardware and software systems in its sorting business. As these discounts can be as great as 25% of the cost of normal first-class postage, customers are willing to pay for pre-sorting services in order to obtain the discounts. The discounts are even greater if the mail is pre-sorted to five digits. Postal Service provides discounts from its standard rates for mail of at least 150 pieces if it is pre-sorted to the first 3 digits of the normal five to nine digit U.S. For example, for first-class mail, the U.S. Postal Service to enable them to obtain discounts on postage. The mail pre-sorter processes mail for businesses in advance of delivering it to the U.S. As described by Jetsort in its opposition, mail pre-sorter serves customers that routinely send large volumes of first-class mail, such as banks or insurance companies. Jetsort and CMS are both in the mail pre-sort business. For the reasons set forth below, defendants' motion will be granted in part and denied in part. This matter has been fully briefed and no further hearing is necessary. Jetsort also alleges that Gray and CMS conspired to wrongfully convey to CMS Jetsort's protected trade secrets. Jetsort alleges that *495 because Gray was bound by various restrictive covenants limiting competition for a period of two years following his employment, he is in breach of that agreement by virtue of his employment with CMS. Plaintiff Ancora Capital & Management Group, LLC d/b/a Jetsort ("Jetsort") brought this suit in response to events surrounding the defection of one of its employees, Gray, to a competitor, CMS. Now pending before this court is a motion for summary judgment brought by defendants Corporate Mailing Services, Inc. Maroldy, Kramon and Graham, Jeffrey Allan Wothers, Niles Barton and Wilmer LLP, Baltimore, MD, for Defendants. Thompson Bell, III, Stevens and Lee, Reading, PA, for Plaintiff.Īndrew Jay Graham, Laura M.L. Irvin, Morrison and Foerster LLP, Washington, DC, Jeffrey D. *494 Lawrence Joseph Quinn, Tydings and Rosenberg LLP, Baltimore, MD, Kenneth W. ANCORA CAPITAL & MANAGEMENT GROUP, LLC d/b/a JETSORT
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