Three ex-employees are being sued by a vehicle part manufacturer for allegedly cybersquatting, it has been reported.
According to the North Virginia Daily, Joel Schurtz and Ronnie Jackson of Winchester, and Michael Firetti, of Purcellville stand accused of breaching intellectual property owned by Kearneysville-based STaSIS.
The firm says the men have violated the Anti-cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act by blocking access to the website and Facebook page of Eurojet Development – a firm bought out by STaSIS.
In the $75,000 lawsuit, the defendants are also accused of taking prototype parts, files, and intellectual property, and trying to change a PayPal account.
Schurtz, Jackson and Firetti have since filed a response to a motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against them.
It stated: “Any alleged interference with STaSIS’ access to or control over domain names, website pages and associated data, e-mail addresses and files, or Facebook page associated with ‘Eurojet’ alleged is due solely to its own failure to re-register the domain names after acquiring rights to them.”
The response claimed that STaSIS should have ended the defendants’ access to or control over such names and sites prior to the termination of their employment.