Cartier sues Tiffany and Co. for stealing trade secrets

Cartier has filed a lawsuit against Tiffany and Co. for allegedly stealing its trade secrets. According to the lawsuit, its investigation led to the discovery of "Tiffany’s disturbing culture of misappropriating competitive information".

Tiffany's senior and mid-level management allegedly used quick money and title advancement to lure an under-qualified employee, only listed as Marino, away from Cartier. Upon hire, Tiffany's president for the Americas met with the employee to obtain "highly valuable, detailed confidential information" that would foster unfair competition.

Furthermore, Tiffany had disregarded Marino's confidentiality and non-solicitation contractual obligations to Cartier by asking her to solicit talent from Cartier. During Marino's tenure at Tiffany, both its president and VP for merchandising repeatedly and knowingly solicited and received confidential Cartier information from her. They cavalierly documented these illegal solicitations were documented in emails and text messages that readily approve illegal conduct, including outreach to current Cartier employees for highly valuable confidential information.

For instance, Marino said she learnt on 13 January that a former Cartier employee had been hired by Tiffany.  While she was under a non-compete restriction that prevented her from working for Tiffany for a period of six months, that former Cartier AVP was already helping Tiffany with Blue Book, Tiffany’s high jewellery collection and related events. Marino was also later told to seek out Cartier retail price pointes from employees still working there. 

Cartier claimed in the lawsuit that when it sent written notices to Tiffany the first three times, the latter chose to "ignore, deflect and deride Cartier’s efforts to protect its assets". After Cartier refused to accept half-answers and poorly investigated assurances, Tiffany took action by firing Marino for failing to disclose her misconduct while no action was taken against Tiffany’s senior leaders who pressured her to engage in it.