Virtual Cloud, a defunct Denver management-services company, claims in a lawsuit that Douglas County-based CH2M Hill stole its technology and used it to drive the company out of business.
CH2M Hill denies the claim in a court document and says the two companies never had licensing or marketing agreements.
The trial is set for March 5 in U.S. District Court in Denver.
Virtual Cloud claims in its 2002 suit that over a period of two years and at a cost of $1.8 million, it developed software that improved computer-network reliability.
In 2001, CH2M Hill, which provides engineering, construction and other services to a roster of worldwide clients, formed a new business called Technology Solutions Center. The two companies talked about forming a variety of strategic alliances and joint ventures.
“During this entire period, CH2M Hill understood that Virtual Cloud was nearly out of funds and in substantial debt at a time when acquiring funds for startup and emerging companies was becoming increasingly difficult,” Virtual Cloud claims in a court document.
CH2M Hill hired the company’s president of development and operations, Timothy Ingram, and later tried to alter the financial terms of a joint venture with Virtual Cloud, according to the document.
CH2M Hill, along with the executive, “secretly sought to clone Virtual Cloud’s … network monitoring service,” the document says.
“Through a variety of wrongful acts, CH2M Hill switched from being a partner with Virtual Cloud to a direct competitor, and CH2M Hill began offering its competing service to Virtual Cloud’s few customers as well as its best prospects, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency,” according to the document.
Ingram also was named as a defendant in the suit.
CH2M Hill responds in a court document that it attempted to reach an agreement with Virtual Cloud to sell its service, and Virtual Cloud voluntarily provided CH2M Hill with information regarding its software. CH2M Hill then included that information in proposals to potential customers for the service, which would have been provided by Virtual Cloud.
CH2M Hill also claims that Virtual Cloud never repaid $92,877 that CH2M Hill paid to one of Virtual Cloud’s vendors.
David Stark, a lawyer for CH2M Hill, and Patrick O’Keefe, a CH2M Hill executive, declined to comment.
Staff writer Tom McGhee can be reached at 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com.
