The Toro Company and Steel Green Manufacturing recently settled their litigation, which is the result of a suit filed in federal court by Toro against Steel Green almost a year ago.
According to a joint news release from both companies: In March 2018, Toro announced its acquisition of substantially all of the assets of L.T. Rich Products, Inc., a Lebanon, Indiana-based manufacturer of stand-on, zero-turn sprayers and spreaders marketed under the trade name "Z-Spray." Matt Smith, Mike Floyd, Scot Jones, Brent Mills, Craig Conyer and James Kepner were employees of L.T. Rich who continued to work at the L.T. Rich facility following The Toro Company's acquisition.
In early July 2018, the employees listed above left their employment at the L.T. Rich facility to form Steel Green Manufacturing LLC, which manufactures stand-on, zero-turn sprayers and spreaders that compete with The Toro Company's line of Z-Spray products. Prior to quitting, certain of the employees listed above removed a significant volume of information from The Toro Company's computer systems, much of which Toro considered sensitive, confidential, and trade secret.
On October 1, 2018, The Toro Company filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana against Steel Green and its employees which alleged, among other things, that they had misappropriated trade secret information that belonged to The Toro Company, giving Steel Green an unfair advantage in bringing its products to market. Steel Green and its employees denied The Toro Company's allegations, and specifically denied ever using The Toro Company's information. Steel Green and its employees also assert that, before the lawsuit was filed, they returned to The Toro Company the storage devices that contained the information that the employees removed.
The parties have reached an agreement to settle their differences. The settlement includes the Court's entry of an agreed injunction, in which Steel Green and its employees will refrain from certain activities, including the use of the information that certain of the employees listed above removed from The Toro Company's computer systems. The injunction also prohibits the sale of machines and parts by Steel Green during certain months in 2020. The other terms of the settlement are confidential.
"With the lawsuit behind us, we are ramping up production," said Brent Mills, general manager for Steel Green Manufacturing. "Our focus is on taking care of our customers and providing inventory to our dealers."