STAR Dynamics files lawsuit to reclaim rights over radar technology

By Kali Hays

New York, Feb. 24 - STAR Dynamics Corp. has filed a lawsuit against BAE Systems Technology Solutions & Services Inc. to regain full rights and ownership of its assets after allegations from BAE that it has property interest in STAR and its designs, according to a Friday filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Ohio.

In the first half of 2012, STAR hired five former BAE employees and two began using Microsoft Excel spreadsheets to "predict some secondary performance characteristic[s]" that a potential defense contract had questioned.

BAE has since "vaguely asserted [the spreadsheets] were used somehow to alter, modify, and/or improve upon" STAR's radar design, and as a result, BAE alleged property interest in the design, claiming the former employees had learned to utilize Excel in their time with BAE, the lawsuit stated.

STAR denies that the spreadsheets or the calculations they produced were used for any changes to the original design presented in August 2012 and claims the employees did not begin using Excel during their employment with BAE.

As previously reported, STAR had been in litigation under which BAE alleged misappropriation of trade secrets under the Ohio Uniform Trade Secrets Act, and a state court enjoined STAR on an interim basis from bidding on specific projects, using any of the alleged trade secrets or developing its CSTAR radar system. That interim order expired without a final order being issued.

The company is seeking a court ruling to re-assert its exclusive ownership of the CSTAR radar technology, that BAE has "no property interest in the radar design or in any contracts for the purchase of a radar" and that the company is free to sell any of its assets without interference from BAE.

STAR Dynamics is a Hilliard, Ohio-based instrumentation radar systems company. The Chapter 11 case number is 13-59657.

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