In March 2019, Calsep sued its former Global Sales Manager, Pashupati Sah, and his business colleague, Ashish Dabral alleging that Sah and Dabral had used Calsep’s stolen PVTsim source code to develop a competing PVT simulation software called InPVT.
Final judgment and damages
On 19 July 2022, the Federal Court in Houston, TX issued its final judgment in the case. Calsep is pleased to announce that the court has decided the case in Calsep’s favor. Sah and Dabral have been ordered to pay Calsep $4,268,753.00 in damages.
Dabral ordered to pay Calsep’s attorney’s fees and expert costs
The court found that the Defendants filed false statements and violated multiple court orders by destroying evidence in the case. In addition to the damages, Dabral was therefore ordered to pay Calsep’s attorney and technical expert fees for a total amount of $736,132.24.
Permanent injunction
The defendants are not only permanently prohibited from continued use of Calsep’s source code. They are also permanently prohibited from developing any software product that performs compositional phase equilibrium calculations on petroleum reservoir fluids.
The court found that “Sah stole the source code and other confidential files from [Calsep] in March 2017 just before his last day of work there.” The order specifically mentions three External Storage Devices to which Sah in early 2017 downloaded Calsep’s trade secret information. Sah has repeatedly ignored court orders to hand over these storage devices to Calsep. Until Pashupati Sah provides Calsep with the three storage devices and any copies of those devices, he is ordered not to engage in any work, consulting, teaching or employment that involves the development, sale, or use of PVT simulation software.
The Magistrate Judge’s Report and Recommendations on Entry of Final Judgment and Permanent Injunction can be downloaded here. This Report and Recommendation was adopted in its entirety, and the Final Judgment Order from the Federal Court in Houston can be downloaded here.