SUIT: HUB VIDEO CO. STOLE DATA

‘Trade secrets’ allegedly leaked

Hub video streaming company Brightcove is facing accusations that two of its employees worked together to steal confidential and proprietary information from a competitor they previously worked for.

“Ooyala has already lost one account to Brightcove, as well as several contracts that were required to be renewed at a lower average contract value to counteract Brightcove’s misappropriation of Ooyala’s confidential and trade secret information,” the California-based Ooyala wrote in a civil complaint filed in Massachusetts District Court. “Multiple prospective clients have stopped responding to Ooyala’s communications following Brightcove’s systematic misappropriation of Ooyala’s trade secret information.”

Ooyala says Dario Perez Real, a former Ooyala employee, worked with his former boss at Ooyala, Raul Franciaso Garcia Dominguez, a sales executive in Brightcove’s Latin America sales department, to steal sensitive and confidential information about Ooyala’s Latin American customers.

Perez allegedly sent Garcia contact information, sales agreements and current customer projects that would have allowed Brightcove to tailor pitches to potential clients and offer lower prices than its competitor, the complaint said.

Ooyala says much of Perez’s alleged data theft went through his work email, and is documented. As Ooyala employees, both Perez and Garcia signed agreements saying they would not share trade secrets, the complaint said. “By stealing the business intelligence Ooyala gathered on our potential clients ... Brightcove is able to shave months off the typical sales cycle and undercut Ooyala’s prices with its major potential new clients,” the complaint said.

In the complaint, Ooyala says Perez resigned Feb. 23 and denied he was taking a job with Brightcove. Ooyala alleges Perez signed a contract with Brightcove earlier that month, citing an email from Brightcove with the subject “CONGRATULATIONS!!”

In a statement, Brightcove denied the allegations.

“When first alerted to these assertions by Ooyala, we reviewed them in good faith and reached out to Ooyala in an effort to address its concerns. Ooyala disengaged from that conversation and then filed this suit,” Brightcove spokesman Phil LeClare said in a statement. “Brightcove believes that this lawsuit is entirely without merit. We are working to resolve the matter.”

Ooyala is asking a judge to order Perez and Garcia to stop working for Brightcove until the suit is resolved.