Legal Question in Business Law in New York

Proprietary Rights To Customer Information

My company is the retailer for an alarm service to customers. The alarms are manufactured and monitored by another company. We purchase all the equipment and own it outright. We do all the billing and installation and upkeep of the system and pay a monthly monitoring fee to the company that monitors it. We are considering changing the alarm monitoring company. The current monitoring company has the contact information for our customers. Can the current company call our customers up and solicit our customers to stay with them if we moved to another company? Can they send letters, etc.?


Asked on 3/08/04, 5:29 pm

3 Answers from Attorneys
Stephen Loeb Law Office of Stephen R. Loeb

Re: Proprietary Rights To Customer Information

Absent a contract, the company will have a right to contact the customers as will you. The customers will have the option of choosing the service they prefer.

Should you like to discuss this or any other legal matter, you can call my office to schedule an appointment for a consultation or in the alternative, I can be reached for on-phone low-cost legal consultation at 1-800-275-5336 x0233699.

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Answered on 3/09/04, 8:07 am
William Pinzler william M. Pinzler

Re: Proprietary Rights To Customer Information

Without knowing more, such as whether you have a contract with the company whose alarms you buy and retail and what that contract says on this issue, the answer to your question is that generally there is no prohibition against the alarm company contcting those of your customers who have installed their alarm system in their houses.

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Answered on 3/08/04, 5:39 pm
Michael Paradise Law Offices of Michael S. Paradise

Re: Proprietary Rights To Customer Information

This is a very interesting issue. The first order of business would be for you to analyze your service agreement with the monitoring company. If you do not have a provision in your contract which protects your "trade secrets", a lawyer would have to research and apply the particular facts of your case to the law of New York (or any other jurisdiction where your customers are located). It would not serve you by giving an answer without the benefit of a detailed interview and review of the contracts (if any).

Good luck

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Answered on 3/08/04, 5:41 pm


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