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AK sues ex-employees over theft of trade secrets

File photo AK Steel Corp. in Middletown, Ohio.

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By Jessica Heffner, Staff Writer Updated 10:27 PM Monday, March 15, 2010

HAMILTON — AK Steel Corp. has filed a lawsuit in the Butler County Court of Common Pleas against three former employees for allegedly stealing company trade secrets.

According to the suit filed Thursday, March 11, Donald Earley resigned from his position of senior process engineer with AK Steel June 25, 2009 to accept a job with one of its competitors, ThyssenKrupp Steel USA, LLC.

However, the suit alleges that before he left, Earley accessed “confidential information and trade secrets on AK Steel’s computer systems and sent numerous files to a personal e-mail,” according to the suit.

This information included e-mails, spreadsheets, communications with vendors and photos of AK facilities, according to the lawsuit.

Earley left AK to work as a lead operating coordinator for ThyssenKrupp’s new Calvert, Ala., facility, which will produce carbon and stainless steel products in similar markets served by AK Steel’s operations, according to court records.

The lawsuit also alleges that Earley contacted Dona Ashby and Jonathan Salisbury, who were working for AK Steel at the time, to obtain additional confidential information on the company’s operations. Those employees, both of Indiana, eventually received job offers from ThyssenKrupp and resigned from AK Steel.

The transmitted information included technical and operations matters, including specifications on company equipment and quality standards, according to AK.

The company was able to track these exchanges of information because AK officials “routinely monitor the company’s computers and the mail traffic to make sure employees are complying with all of the rules and the confidentiality agreements,” said Alan McCoy, spokesman for the company.

“Obviously it is a red flag when someone resigns to go to work for a competitor,” he said.

Earley, Ashby and Salisbury each signed confidentiality agreements with AK Steel when they were hired by the company.

The damages to the company are to be determined at trial. The lawsuit cites that the cost to the company, some of which cannot be calculated, is in excess of $25,000. AK Steel is also directing the court to have the defendants return the confidential information and order an accounting of and payment to AK Steel for all financial gains given to them through the information.

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2843 or jheffner@coxohio.com.

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