Two former Ocado employees, including one of the company’s co-founders, have settled with the company after a drawn out legal battle over information theft.
Former Ocado co-founder Jonathan Faiman, and former senior employee Jon Hilary, have both agreed to pay settlements to the pureplay grocer and delete the stolen documents.
Faiman, one of the three original co-founders of Ocado, and Hilary paid a settlement to the firm and agreed to delete files that contained confidential information on Ocado’s deals with Waitrose, M&S and US supermarket chain Kroger, and plans and financial information for its automated warehouses.
The documents were found in a court-ordered search of Faiman’s hotel room and Hilary’s home in 2019 after the two’s Project Today Holdings company partnered with Waitrose.
The two are thought to have agreed a settlement in the millions with Ocado and have 28 days to destroy all the documents. Future use of the information by Faiman and Hilary is prohibited.
Faiman pitched to Waitrose - and M&S
Faiman had originally left the grocery delivery service in 2008 and founded Today in 2018. The pair had planned to use the confidential information from Ocado to set up this rival venture.
Waitrose announced a partnership with Today and promised to triple the size of its online business using Faiman’s expertise on three automated distribution centres. However the partnership fell apart three months later, when Waitrose found that Faiman had also pitched Today’s services to rival grocer M&S.
Faiman had also offered to share a confidential document related to Ocado’s operations at another meeting with M&S in the same year.
“Ocado will not hesitate to take any steps to protect its valuable intellectual property and know-how”
Ocado added: “This litigation (which included a multi-site search order against the Defendants), and the outcome of the proceedings, demonstrates that Ocado Group will take the strongest possible action against any individuals or companies to protect its interests.”
“In particular, it will not hesitate to take any steps necessary to protect its extremely valuable intellectual property and know-how.”
Ocado is still pursuing separate action against Raymond McKeeve, a former partner of the law firm Jones Day, for contempt of court.
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