MIAMI — A federal judge dismissed an intellectual property case over a phone app that would allow customers to hail taxis in Mexico City.
In a July 12 ruling, Judge Frederico A. Moreno of the U.S.District Court for the Southern District of Florida found Taxinet did not sufficiently identify what trade secrets were stolen by a former business partner, Santiago Leon.
In its lawsuit, Taxinet alleged Leon took the app idea initially disclosed to him as part of a partnership. Taxinet deployed a similar app in Ecuador and wanted to introduce the technology to Mexico City.
The federal judge ruled Taxinet did not provide enough evidence to show Santiago Leon violated trade secrets laws.
The parties did not sign a non-disclosure agreement or any other formal papers about the app.
Leon contended that Taxinet had freely shared information with his team and officials from the Mexican government present during the meetings.
Taxinet did not describe how the company tried to protect the information allegedly stolen by Leon. In order for the case to move forward, “the party asserting the trade secret protection bears the initial burden of describing the alleged trade secret information and also showing that it had taken reasonable steps to protect this secrecy,” Moreno wrote in his ruling.
Taxinet's allegations were insufficient to meet the standard because they refer generically to "broad categories of confidential and technical information,” Moreno wrote.
Taxinet can amend the complaint if the company shows more evidence to the support their claims, the judge ruled.