U.S. District Judge Sidney Fitzwater has entered a judgment of $9.6 million for medical products manufacturer ThermoTek Inc. after a jury found that a competitor fraudulently obtained the company’s business information for a series of physical therapy machines.

ThermoTek is the Flower Mound, Texas-based manufacturer of VascuTherm2, Vascutherm4 and other products that are used in the treatment of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and other medical conditions.

In 2010, ThermoTek was sued by a distributor controlled by Chicago businessman Mike Wilford. The lawsuits, which were filed in Chicago, alleged faulty manufacture.

ThermoTek’s lawyers from the Dallas-based law firm Rose•Walker managed to move the case to Dallas, where Judge Fitzwater dismissed a number of the original claims filed by the Wilford parties. The attorneys then brought a counterclaim against Mr. Wilford and his companies, alleging he fraudulently obtained ThermoTek’s business information in order to design and sell his own products. During the litigation, the Wilford parties were sanctioned for failing to produce documents.

The jury issued a unanimous verdict Friday in favor of ThermoTek after finding Mr. Wilford liable for fraud and unfair competition, and awarded $7.56 million, an amount that grows to $9.6 million with pre-judgment interest. The jury also rejected all the claims presented by the Wilford group during the three-week trial.

“This verdict allows us to move forward and continue the work of growing our business and serving our customers, for which I’m very grateful,” says Sam McSpadden, ThermoTek CEO.

“This was little more than outright theft,” says Rose•Walker founding partner Martin Rose, who along with firm partner Chris McDowell, represented ThermoTek at trial. “Wilford’s plan all along was to take ThermoTek’s designs and profit from them,” Rose says.

www.rosewalker.com

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