November 7, 2018 — The federal trial between Gloucester-based National Fish and Seafood and the Florida-based seafood processing competitor it accuses of corporate espionage now is not expected to commence until at least midway through 2019.
U.S. District Court Judge Leo T. Sorokin on Monday set next July 22 as the opening trial date in the lawsuit between National Fish and competitor Tampa Bay Fisheries of Dover, Florida.
In the lawsuit, initially filed last July, National Fish accuses Tampa Bay Fisheries of hiring away Kathleen A. Scanlon, a 23-year employee at National Fish, and using her to help steal recipes, client information and other trade secrets on her way out the door from the Gloucester company.
The order by Sorokin, who sits in the U.S. District Court in Boston, also established the discovery schedule for the trial and set a status conference with attorneys from both sides for the afternoon of April 17.
If Sorokin’s trial date holds, the trial will begin almost exactly one year since the the intellectual property battle between the two seafood processing competitors burst into the public consciousness.