Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Group has accused two former executives of “industrial-scale misuse” of its intellectual property after they left to begin a rival inexperienced iron expertise agency.
The miner has requested the Federal Court for permission to trawl by way of computer systems at three properties linked to former workers Michael Masterman and Bart Kolodziejczyk to search out proof to assist its claims.
Former Fortescue executives Bart Kolodziejczyk (left) and Michael Masterman wish to construct a $3.2 billion inexperienced iron ore processing plant within the Pilbara inside 5 years.Credit: Eamon Gallagher
Two of the properties are situated in Perth, one other is in Melbourne.
Fortescue alleges that confidential info was copied and brought when Masterman and Kolodziejczyk left the corporate in late 2021.
Soon after leaving the miner, Kolodziejczyk, Fortescue’s former chief scientist, and Masterman, a senior govt near Forrest, based Element Zero with the goal of decreasing the carbon footprint of Australia’s most profitable export trade, iron ore.
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Fortescue has positioned itself as a inexperienced vitality convert, promising to spend $9.2 billion to remove emissions from its mining operations and grow to be a world producer of inexperienced hydrogen and iron.
“The allegation at the heart of the proceedings is an alleged ‘industrial-scale misuse’ of what is said to be, by the Fortescue parties, confidential information concerning its ‘green [carbon dioxide free] iron’ technology,” Federal Court choose John Logan stated in a abstract of the declare.
“It is alleged that this has been utilised in the designing, engineering and construction and operation by the first respondent [Element Zero] of an industrial pilot plant for an electrochemical reduction process.”