Protecting Trade Secrets While Working Remotely

ProStairs Fitness and Richard Mullen sued Collis Brown and Coliseum, LLC over a fitness product made up of a set of stairs and a slide, permitting users to work out by climbing the stairs while eliminating the stress of impact that would result from descending the stairs. According to the complaint, Mullen provided more than a quarter of a million dollars in funding to the development and production of the product, with the expectation that he would market the product with Brown and Coliseum.
When Brown declined to proceed, Mullen began marketing the product through ProStairs Fitness. In response to Brown 2019s subsequent threat to sue Mullen for infringing U.S. Patent No. 9,114,271, on which Brown is the sole named inventor, Mullen filed the instant complaint, seeking a declaration that the ProStairs exercise apparatus does not infringe the 2018271 patent.