Manufacturing software maker Visim Inc. filed suit in Delaware federal court Wednesday accusing Plex Systems Inc. of stealing proprietary software and algorithms that were covered by confidentiality agreements, in violation of the Defense of Trade Secrets Act of 2016.
Visim, which does business as Waterloo Manufacturing Software, entered into several agreements with Plex dating back as far as 2002 to integrate parts of its scheduling software into Plex’s manufacturing software, which includes production planning and scheduling features, according to the complaint.
Waterloo, which said it spends over 30 percent of its revenue on development, says it intended “and Plex claimed that it intended” for its software to be the permanent scheduling component of Plex’s system and Waterloo allowed Plex to build its database fields to mirror those in Waterloo’s program. The relationship deepened and there was even talk of a merger, the complaint says.
But Plex developed its own copycat software based on Waterloo’s scheduling component and severed the relationship, it says.
Waterloo is represented by Michael P. Kelly, Daniel M. Silver and Benjamin A. Smyth of McCarter & English LLP.