A company that designs celeb-fave city window displays for posh designers such as Gucci and Prada says a rival “bribed’’ one of its workers to steal trade secrets, according to a new million-dollar lawsuit.
Space/Craft World Wide, a Long Island-based design and fabrication firm, claims in Manhattan court papers that the sneaky move by UK-based competitor Harlequin puts the jobs of the plaintiff’s 150 employees at risk with such “unfair and illegal business practices.”
“Harlequin essentially bribed a Space/Craft employee to misappropriate Space/Craft’s trade secrets and highly sensitive and confidential business information and deliver it to Harlequin,” the suit states.
The local company is seeking to prevent Harlequin from using its “proprietary” information — which it says has made it a leader in designing and manufacturing intricate window displays at top luxury retailers including Saks, Chanel, Prada, Gucci, Marc Jacobs and Dior.
One of its displays — the Dior and Saks Fifth Avenue Christmas stunner “Carousel of Dreams” at Saks last year — drew fans such as superstar actress Jennifer Lawrence.
“If Harlequin – a well-funded foreign company that is determined to drive us out of business – is allowed to use our Confidential Data, our business will be irreparably harmed,” said Space/Craft COO and CFO Jack Sivilli in an affidavit.
The suit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court last week, seeks $1 million in damages for the alleged theft of information, the use of which by Harlequin is unclear.
“This baseless and unsubstantiated claim is patently false and will be addressed by our counsel in due course in the proceedings,” said Harlequin co-CEO Andrew Brown in a statement to The Post.
A representative for Space/Craft declined to comment.
The Long Island company claims in its lawsuit that starting earlier this year, Harlequin — whose work is mostly done in China, according to the filing — tried to poach its workers by dangling lucrative salary increases but was largely unsuccessful.
“Our employees are generally long-term and loyal, and we were not overly concerned about Harlequin’s approaches to them,” Sivilli said in his affidavit.
But one worker took the bait, the suit says, identifying the person as the company’s purchasing manager, who is not a named party in the suit.
In August, the worker suddenly gave his employer of 10 years just three days’ notice that he would be moving on, telling his higher-ups that he was leaving to strike out on his own — and otherwise evasive on details.
The departure “wreaked havoc” as the company tried to reconstitute its purchasing department, the suit states, but soon the company learned why he left in such a hurry.
As Space/Craft tried to pick up the pieces, its workers noticed key files were missing from the former employee’s computer.
“Space/Craft’s IT Department discovered that he had downloaded at least three of the company’s most sensitive files onto an external drive and then deleted them permanently,” including “trade secrets and proprietary data” including financial information, client projects and pricing data — access to which was highly restricted,” the suit claims.
In response to a cease-and-desist letter from Space/Craft, Harlequin questioned if the local firm’s onetime employee ever had access to trade secrets and did not respond to its assertion that New York law protects non-trade secret information.
Space/Craft was founded in 2003 by Maz Khalfan, whose family ran a sign-making business in Long Island City. They have a 100,000-square-foot facility in Hauppauge.