TechForward Awarded $27 Million in Lawsuit Against Best Buy

         TechForward Awarded $27 Million in Lawsuit Against Best Buy

PR Newswire

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 5, 2012

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- A California jury has awarded
TechForward $22 million in damages for the improper use of TechForward's trade
secrets by Best Buy Co., Inc. and two of its subsidiaries relating to
TechForward's Guaranteed Buyback Program. The jury determined that Best Buy's
conduct was willful and malicious. The court also awarded TechForward an
additional $5 million in punitive damages.

Reacting to the jury award, TechForward's co-founders Jade Van Doren and Marc
Lebovitz said in a statement, "We are extremely pleased that the jury
recognized Best Buy's misconduct, and we hope this verdict puts large
companies on notice that there are real consequences to illegally exploiting
start-up businesses like ours."

TechForward, a small, California-based start-up company, filed its lawsuit,
TechForward, Inc. v. Best Buy Co., Inc., et al. in the United States District
Court for the Central District of California in 2011, claiming that Best Buy
misappropriated TechForward's trade secrets relating to TechForward's
Guaranteed Buyback Program. The Guaranteed Buyback Program had been
implemented with other national consumer electronics retailers around the
country.  

Under the Guaranteed Buyback Program, the consumer electronic retailer's
customers pay for the right to redeem newly purchased electronic devices at a
future date in exchange for store credit that represents a percentage of the
original purchase price that can be used toward the purchase of another device
from the retailer.

TechForward claimed that Best Buy, after months of working with TechForward to
implement the program in Best Buy stores, misappropriated TechForward's trade
secrets and launched its own buyback program without TechForward.  Best
Buy announced the launch of its program in February 2011 with great
fanfare with a Super Bowl commercial featuring Justin Bieber and Ozzy
Osbourne.

Jade Van Doren and Marc Lebovitz founded TechForward in 2006. Major investors
included leading venture capital firms New Enterprise Associates and First
Round Capital. TechForward was sold to SquareTrade Inc., in April 2012. The
original TechForward investors retained the right to pursue the lawsuit
against Best Buy.

 

SOURCE TechForward

Contact: Tim Turpin, Sparkpr, +1-415-321-1894, tim@sparkpr.com