Legal Question in Technology Law in Washington

Competitor's website use

My employer obtains information from the website of another competing firm in our industry (publishing). They caught on and have blocked our IP Address so our IT guy installed an anonymizer to mask our presence. I believe there was talk of a lawsuit against us at one point. Now we have changed the way we access the site such that it is accessed using a VNC Viewer on our desktop. Either way, the company does not have the permission to access this website. I know this because on the competitor's website it says in its terms and conditions: ''Harvesting'' (downloading, copying, and transmitting) of any project information and/or project documents for purposes of reselling and or redistributing information by any other party is not allowed.

What should I, as the employee who primarily accesses their site, do? How can I find out if the competitor has a suit of some kind in existance?


Asked on 10/08/08, 5:33 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Christopher Steuart IT Forensics, Inc.

Re: Competitor's website use

There are databases of civil and criminal actions. I'd search them, but to do that you need to know what state (and perhaps county) the action was filed in. Laws and rules affect where an action is supposed to be filed. WA rules say that the action has to be served within 90 days of filing, and Federal rules say 120 days, so if it is filed the Plaintiff does not want to sit on it indefinitely. Generally, plaintiff's attorneys don't sit on these things once they are filed, but rather get started on service within a few days. Your company should find an attorney who can help you with this.

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Answered on 10/08/08, 5:59 pm


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