The marbling lawsuit is back in the news. Surprisingly, it has not been dropped as some thought it would be, but the party claiming theft of trade secrets is asking for it to go to trial. The trial is scheduled for January 23, 1995.
The party claiming the theft will have to prove in court that they had a secret. They will possibly have to marble in court, which I believe will be a first! They also have to prove that the woman alleged to have stolen the secrets has used their process commercially for financial gain. She can prove she has not. She also has not even marbled at all since parting company with them several years ago. There were no papers ever signed by her claiming she would never marble for any period of time.
The marbling produced by this now-bankrupt company, in my opinion, was of a fairly poor quality, and as far as I could see there were absolutely no secrets involved. They had once disclosed to me what exactly it was they used, and all the materials are readily available to anyone wishing to purchase them from marbling suppliers or art stores.
We will keep you posted of further developments through this Newsletter.