So… the Methodics/IC Manage saga continues. Last week’s revelations must have caught them somewhat unprepared, so it took them some more time to provide a broader explanation of what they say has been going on. Here is Mr. Sikand’s statement:
“Due to Methodics LLC CEO Simon Butler’s recent email campaigns and postings maligning IC Manage, Inc. and the personal attacks against me, I am writing to provide the background behind my acquisition of the methodics.com domain name. My actions were born out of frustration from repeated questionable business tactics by Methodics LLC. The Methodics LLC recent email campaign and postings being the most recent example.
“Many of the people who read this note will remember and recognize a sales person they met as an IC Manage, Inc. employee who is now soliciting their business for Methodics LLC. This person left IC Manage, Inc. with a company laptop containing our confidential trade secrets including sales prospect information, sales contact database, contracts, proposals, price lists, and the source code for our GDP design management product, which were all archived in a common repository.
“He synced 9052 confidential files to his laptop and refused to return the laptop. Our lawyers wrote to him and sent copies of this correspondence to Simon Butler but neither of them communicated that they took any action to remedy the transgression or theft. IC Manage, Inc. prefers to invest in technology and not in lawsuits. IC Manage, Inc. prefers to compete in the marketplace making the best products. We believe that nearly every single IC Manage customer in our database was solicited by Methodics LLC. We also believe that nearly all of IC Manage’s prospects were contacted by Methodics LLC and pitched product.
“It was with great surprise that I found the “methodics.com” domain for sale and at a very nominal price. It was not owned by Methodics LLC. I spontaneously purchased it to make a point without any malicious intent. The specific screen shot that is being shown by Methodics LLC was posted based on an internal misunderstanding – it was only up for a few days before it was removed of our own accord before we believed anyone had seen it. Methodics LLC only publicizes their domain “methodics-da.com”. We changed it to say “Methodics is not doing business at this location”.
“I personally regret what happened with the web page, and although there are at least two companies using the name Methodics, IC Manage, Inc. offered Methodics LLC the ‘methodics.com’ domain name for the same price I paid for it, as long as both companies would drop the matter publicly and deal with it privately. Methodics LLC legal counsel gave preliminary indications that they were not interested in accepting IC Manage, Inc’s offer. I have not brought any of this into the public domain before because frankly I didn’t see it as a public matter. On the other hand, Simon Butler has played this up for full titillation – Simon sent out his broadcast email about the page AFTER the page had already been removed.
“Given the distorted view that Methodics LLC has rolled out and their continuing business actions, IC Manage, Inc. is forced to reassess whether to pursue formal legal action with regard to trade secret and confidential information theft. [emphasis original]
Regards,
Shiv Sikand”
I delayed my posting of this to give Methodics a chance to respond to the allegations with respect to the salesperson:
”In response to IC Manage’s statement from yesterday, Methodics would only like to say for the record that it respects the intellectual property of others and has never violated IC Manage’s trade secrets. It is not uncommon – nor illegal – for sales people to move within the same technology space so long as there is no intellectual property violation. Our policy in these situations is to be very careful about an individual’s prior experience. We have never received any letter from an attorney or anybody else at IC Manage about these issues.
“We suspect this is posturing in light of the recent serious revelation about an IC Manage officer’s involvement in cybersquatting a domain containing our exact trademark. Methodics was forced to go public to dispel the disinformation posted on the URL. Only now, after Methodics had to commence legitimate remedies to take control of the domain, has IC Manage admitted to its action. We decline to pay IC Manage to recover that domain.”
Ugh…
