According to the following Seattle Times article, the judge overseeing the Naveen Jain insider trading case has ruled that 20% of the award will be considered attorneys fees, so Infospace stands to gain 80% of the final dollar amount.
Judge rules in favor of founder of InfoSpace
By David Heath
Seattle Times staff reporter
InfoSpace founder Naveen Jain won't have to shut down his new company, Intelius, after successfully fending off — at least for now — a lawsuit against him from the company he built.
The Bellevue company ousted Jain a year ago and then sued him for allegedly violating an agreement when he started a competing company right across the street. However, Superior Court Judge Douglas McBroom ruled this week that Jain didn't violate the agreement because he didn't rely on confidential or proprietary information from InfoSpace in starting Intelius.
"We are pleased that we have been vindicated and that all claims have been dismissed against Intelius," Jain said last night.
InfoSpace announced plans yesterday to appeal the judge's ruling.
McBroom also ruled that Jain and business partner Kevin Marcus didn't violate the trade-secrets law or interfere with any of InfoSpace's business relationships. However, he ruled that Jain violated the noncompete agreement by failing to return some computer equipment to the company when he left.
Intelius is an online company that charges fees for background checks of people. InfoSpace, which began as an online telephone directory, has in recent months redesigned its Web site, refocusing attention on its people-search services.
Jain is embroiled in another legal battle with his former company. After a federal judge last summer ordered Jain to pay InfoSpace $247 million for violating insider-trading laws against buying and selling stock within the same six months, Jain sued InfoSpace and others claiming that their errors led him to violate the law.
U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman ruled this week that 20 percent of the award in that case will go to the lawyers who brought it, led by Seattle attorney Stephen Sirianni. If Jain loses his appeal, the attorney fees could reach $50 million, reducing the award to InfoSpace to $200 million.
InfoSpace was once one of the most successful dot-com stocks on Wall Street. But after the shares collapsed, Jain was eventually forced out of the company. |
