Denver Club Owner Fails to Bounce His Partner’s Trade Secrets Lawsuit for Alleged MySpace Friends Theft

On March 14th, a federal court in Denver, Colorado kept alive an electronic dance club owner’s trade secret theft and antitrust lawsuit against one of his former partners, alleging his partner stole his clubs’ MySpace “friends” and tried to drive the owner out of the Denver electronic dance market. In Christou v. Beatport, LLC, No. 10-cv-02912-RBJ-KMT, 2012 WL 872574 (D. Colo. Mar. 14, 2012), the court ruled that plaintiff, Christou, who owned a group of dance clubs in the Denver area popularly referred as the “SOCO” clubs, could maintain a trade secrets misappropriation lawsuit against his former partner, Bradley Roulier, who owned a competing club (“Beta”) and operated an electronic dance music e-commerce site (“Beatport”), for his alleged theft of Christou’s compilation of MySpace friends’ profiles and contact information. The court rejected Roulier’s argument that Christou’s MySpace friends were fair game because they were available on the internet.

To read this blog post click here