An East Texas jury has found a subsidiary of gas-focused independent Southwestern Energy guilty of profiting from trade secrets. If the conviction is upheld, Southwestern could be forced to pay out almost $400 million. Jurors in the Shelby County state district court determined this week that Southwestern's subsidiary Southwestern Energy Production Co. (Sepco) unlawfully profited from a proprietary method of analyzing well data in the James Lime formation in East Texas developed by plaintiffs Toby Berry- Helfand and Gery Muncey. Sepco refused to return the proprietary data to plaintiffs, subsequently acquired leases based upon the proprietary data, and profited from it, according to the suit filed against the company.
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