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Technology Stocks : Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mark Fowler who wrote (33263)	1/7/1999 5:33:00 PM
From: Zeem	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

Wal-Mart seeks to move Amazon.com suit to Washington BENTONVILLE, Ark., January 6 - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said it had filed a second suit against Amazon.com Inc., this time in the online retailer's home state of Washington, after an Arkansas judge ruled that court did not have jurisdiction to try all the defendants. The new suit, filed in the state Superior Court in Seattle, where Amazon.com is based, is almost identical to a suit filed in October in Arkansas, Wal-Mart said. In both suits, the world's biggest retailer, which is based in Bentonville, Ark., is seeking an injunction to bar the fast-growing online bookseller from using trade secrets allegedly gleaned from former Wal-Mart employees. Wal-Mart alleges that Amazon.com has been hiring Wal-Mart employees with detailed knowledge of its data warehousing, merchandising, distribution and replenishment systems. “As we've said before we think their claims have no merit and because of that we look forward to arguing the merits in court,” said Amazon.com spokesman Bill Curry. Also named as defendants in both suits are Kleiner Perkins, the venture capital firm that funded Amazon.com in its infancy; Drugstore.com, another Kleiner Perkins start-up; and Richard Dalzell, a former Wal-Mart employee who is now Amazon.com's chief information officer. In the Arkansas suit, the judge ruled that the court there had jurisdiction to hear Wal-Mart's case against Amazon.com but not against Dalzell and Drugstore.com. A ruling will be made later this month on the case against Kleiner Perkins. Wal-Mart said it will appeal the rulings on Dalzell and Drugstore.com but filed suit in Washington state because it wanted the case against all four defendants to be heard by the same court. “We believe there is a conspiracy between Amazon.com and Drugstore.com, as well as Kleiner Perkins, to obtain as much information as possible about Wal-Mart's proprietary information systems and business processes,” Wal-Mart's General Counsel Robert Rhoads said. © 1999 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.