A Pulaski County jury recently awarded $14 million to Chase Global Services of Reno, Nevada, in a trade secrets case against a Little Rock tech firm that had won a $65 million contract from the state of Nevada in 2018.
In a lawsuit filed in 2019, Chase Global accused Protech Solutions Inc. of stealing its secrets to win the contract for software services for Nevada’s child support enforcement unit.
“Chase Global Services is very happy to be vindicated after seven long years,” one of Chase Global’s attorneys, Andrew King of Kutak Rock LLP’s Little Rock office, told Arkansas Business.
During the eight-day trial, “we told the jury that the plaintiff would be satisfied with an award of $5 million but we also think that more than that is justified,” King said. “The jury went with more than that.”
The Arkansas Trade Secrets Act lacks a provision for punitive damages, but the act does allow for an award for legal fees, which King plans to request.
Protech said in a statement that it plans to appeal. “While we respect the judicial process, we are disappointed and disagree with today’s verdict,” the company said. “We remain committed to the highest levels of integrity and honesty in all of our work, as we continue to create solutions that make an impact on the lives of the people we serve.”
Attorneys Scott Richardson, Bart Calhoun and Brittany Webb of McDaniel Wolff of Little Rock represented Protech.
Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Cara Connors presided over the case.
The origin of the case traces back to 2016 when the state of Nevada initially sought bids on a software services project for its child support system. Chase Global and Protech sought to win the job by working together, with Protech as contractor and Chase Global as the subcontractor with a minimum of 20% of the project’s workload.
Over 18 days, Chase Global contributed meaningful sections to the bid.
Chase Global had worked on projects for Nevada’s child support enforcement unit. And Protech had a long-term contract to run Arkansas’ child support information system and did similar work for other states.
Chase Global said it shared confidential information with Protech that was used to submit a bid for the project in 2016. But before the bid applications were open, Nevada withdrew the request for proposals amid financing issues and returned the unopened bids to the companies.
A year later, Nevada issued another bid request for the project.
Chase Global said in court filings that it tried to talk to Protech’s leaders about a joint response for that second bid request, but got no response.
Meanwhile, Protech went ahead and submitted a bid, without Chase Global but with information that was part of their joint bid, according to court documents. The bid prevailed.
Chase Global wanted to be a subcontractor on the project.
“Protech … then concocted a ‘disapproval letter’ scheme to cover its tracks and blame the State of Nevada for Chase’s exclusion,” Chase Global’s court documents said.
In a statement to Arkansas Business in 2024, one of Protech’s attorneys said that Protech’s agreement with Chase Global Services expired after Nevada pulled the first bid request. Protech later “received information indicating that Chase Global Service’s reputation with the State of Nevada was not what Protech had been led to believe.”
But Chase Global said in court filings that Protech’s plan was for Nevada to disapprove Chase Global as a subcontractor, and then blame the state for not hiring Chase Global.
The state, however, wasn’t willing to go along because Nevada considered Chase Global’s work to be “excellent,” the court filings said.
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