Court upholds ruling on gaming trade secrets

Monday, May 8, 2000 | 11:37 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A Las Vegas company that sold slot machine tracking cards to casinos is entitled to damages because one of its former employees and a rival company stole its trade secrets, the Nevada Supreme Court ruled.

The court, however, sent the case back to District Court to recalculate the more than $400,000 awarded to Charles Johnson, who operated the Plastic Print-a-Card Company and Johnson Business Machines.

The court, in its unanimous decision Thursday, said there was "sufficient circumstantial evidence" presented at the trial before Senior District Judge James Brennan to find that Johnson had lost business because of the misappropriation of his trade secrets.

The case dates back to the early 1990s when Michelle Frantz became sales manager for Johnson, who sold the plastic cards to casinos for use as VIP and slot machine player tracking cards. Frantz was hired away from Johnson by Plastic Graphics, Inc., owned by Antonio Accornero. Plastic Graphics then started competing with Johnson in the plastic card business.

After Frantz left, Johnson lost 30 percent to 40 percent of its business, court papers said. Johnson officials said confidential customer and pricing lists were also missing after Frantz left.

After trial, Brennan awarded damages against Plastic Graphics, Frantz, Western Badge and Trophy Co., Wesley Ru and Action Graphics. They filed an appeal saying there was insufficient evidence to show a misappropriation of trade secrets and that the amount of damages was too high.

The Supreme Court agreed with one claim, that the amount of compensatory and punitive damages had been miscalculated, saying Judge Brennan had awarded too much money. It ordered him to recompute the damages at a lower amount.

But the court rejected the claim of the appellants that the $160,000 in attorney fees awarded to lawyers for Johnson was too high.