Employees vindicated in trade secrets lawsuit

A Sarasota County judicial magistrate recently dismissed a lawsuit against a Sarasota printing company and two individual defendants who were accused of unfair and deceptive trade practices, theft of trade secrets and other counts.

Magistrate Deborah Bailey of the 12th Circuit Court, after a hearing held Aug. 30, dismissed a lawsuit filed by Sarasota-based Spotlight Graphics owner and president John Souza. Souza, through Sarasota attorney Michael Fayard, alleged in his lawsuit that two of Spotlight’s most respected employees — Renee Phinney and Charles Zweil, had engaged in the trade secret wrongdoing around the time they planned to leave the firm. Phinney and Zweil now work for Sarasota-based Palm Printing.