OxfordPress.com

A local company has filed a lawsuit against two of its former employees, saying the men are benefiting financially from trade secrets they stole from their former employer.

West Chester Twp.-based Rite Track Equipment Services filed the lawsuit in mid-February in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati alleging Jeff Gallant and Henry Knight used proprietary information from the company to start their own business, Unique Engineering and Consulting Services.

The limited liability company is also based in West Chester Twp., according to court records.

Rite Track, located at 8655 Rite Track Way, manufactures track equipment used in the photolithography and cleaning processes for the semiconductor industry, according to its Web site. The company's methods are used to produce certain types of electrical chips in computers, cell phones, solar panels and printers, for example.

The company says the two men are illegally using software designed by Rite Track to operate their own equipment, the lawsuit says. Company officials are seeking unspecified damages.

Officials from Rite Track declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Peggy Barker, a Cincinnati-based attorney who is representing Gallant and Knight, also declined to go into specifics about the case, saying only, "We will be defending this case vigorously, and I will be filing some counterclaims" in U.S. District Court.

The defendants' answer to Rite Track's claims is due March 5, Barker said.

The lawsuit says Gallant, who also lives in West Chester, is the former director of sales for Rite Track, responsible for global sales. He is also listed as the principal representative for Unique Engineering and Consulting Services, according to documents he filed with the Ohio Secretary of State in December. He was hired by Rite Track on July 31, 2003, according to the lawsuit, which does not specify an end of his employment.

Knight, a resident of Centerville, was the former director of research and development for Rite Track, and was responsible for developing new hardware and software products, according to the lawsuit. He worked for his former employer from April 1, 2002, to Oct. 8, 2008, the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit says both men had access to Rite Tracks' confidential and proprietary information, and that both signed agreements prohibiting them from sharing or otherwise using that information.