UFC Sues Bellator, Agent Ken Pavia for Alleged Theft of Trade Secrets
Zuffa LLC, the parent company of the UFC and WEC, has sued prominent MMA agent Ken Pavia and rival promotion Bellator, alleging that Pavia shared Zuffa’s trade secrets and confidential documents to help Bellator run its business, Yahoo Sports Kevin Iole reports:
According to the suit, filed Wednesday in Clark County District Court, Pavia delivered confidential contracts, including fighter agreements, to Bellator after being asked to do so in a July 4 email to him from Bellator founder Bjorn Rebney.
An email which Zuffa’s lawsuit alleges is from Rebney to Pavia on July 4 was attached as an exhibit to the 16-page suit. In it, Rebney writes, ” … You’ve been great about sending us ‘All’ of the seminal docs from the UFC, so that we can re-do them and implement them for Bellator.”
Later, the email Zuffa alleges to have been written by Rebney continues, “Please list each in terms of what it is for and how the UFC uses them/implements them. … Then I’m going to have our team Monday re-type them and we will sufficiently alter them such that they will appear to be ours and not theirs.”
Pavia and Bellator declined to comment on the case, in which Zuffa is seeking damages as well as an injunction to prevent them from using the assets.
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Ugh.
This not only has nine kids of hideous written all over it, but could potentially send Bellator into the Forgotten Zone, where you’ll find PRIDE, EliteXC and Affliction…
Its hing like this that give me a love/hate relationship with Zuffa. On one hand they a the single most powerful force driving MMA the sport I love into the future. For that I thank them. On the other hand I find things like this disgusting. UFC is the larges promotion in the world and will likley remain that way indefinitely. And despite that fact they still engage in petty lawsuits, and use there lawyers to screw over as many other MMA figures as they can ex, Shamrock, various websites, and now Bellator. You dont need to be a bully whatever Bellator “stole” wasn’t hurting the UFC only helping themselves.
That’s not petty. It’s called industrial espionage and several people can get in a lot of trouble over it.
Guess you don’t run a company … if you did you would know that 1) you do not give anyone an inch – it is competition, and you don’t let up or you are doomed 2) letting this go sets a precedent and weakens any future claims.
this is by far the dumbest thing i have ever heard
what do u mean “its not gonna hurt”
ask any company and they will tell u that u dont give away any company documents to ANYBODY
this is a very serious issue and whoever is involved is ****ed for life
I hate to break it to everyone but love it or hate it this is business 101, by showing they’re willing to go after the small stuff they establish they are not to be messed with and hopefully deter any and all breaches of confidentiality. The sport is still relatively in it’s pre-kindergarten years so any and all secrets are valuble. If you want MMA to become a global brand then you have to accept things like this happening because the only way most people will recognize the sport as becoming “global” is if the UFC label is attached. So as I said everything is valuable.
I would also like to point out, that the USA is still a nation based on the rule of law, at least for a little while longer. That means that rights to property, real or intellectual, are not decided based on “well, he can afford to have less” but based on the fact that it actually belongs to someone, and no one has a right to take it from them just because “it won’t hurt them if it’s gone.”
Agreed but all we all know promotion of any sport can be shady, combat sports in particular have a long history of not so ethical deals being made. All I am saying is that when you surround yourself with horse thieves don’t be surprised to wake up one morning without your horse. Also just because the UFC is legally in the right(I never said they weren’t) doesn’t meant there actions are “right”
Wow, you really think that them going after what legally belongs to them isn’t “right”? I guess if I ever decide to make a career of burglarizing houses I’ll come to yours first, since you don’t believe it’s “right” to pursue legal action to protect what is yours.
Just to be clear, I wasn’t condemning Zuffa for protecting itself, which they have every right to do.
I was just pointing out that ugly was on the horizon, and that its regrettable that Bellator might pay the ultimate [no pun intended] price for short-cutting…
What I’m saying is that ALL businesses do things that are less than ethical. I would be a fool to believe that Dana and Zuffa never did anything corrupt or illegal to get to where they are today. Legally MMA shouldn’t have existed at one point. To me most court battles like this are just a way to screw someone who had the wits to get one over on you. With that said I feel that such lawsuits are a major problem in many aspects within this country.
It’s one thing to “get one over” on someone. It’s another thing to do it illegally. And there are specific laws regarding the security and safety of trade secrets.
Is it any different than sending Tito Ortiz around to your local promotions pretending to look for work and getting the real inside edge on how you are doing then befriending his old boss and magically rehired by the UFC ?
I highly doubt they “sent Tito Ortiz around” whether he had any intentions of signing with the other promotions was his wrong doing, but I just don’t believe it was some evil plot by the UFC to send him to scope out the other promotions.
Oh this sounds ugly dude! I thought bellator had a bright future with it’s tournaments and women’s mma but after this i’m not sure.
Not trying to put words in your mouth here, dr doom, but do you honestly think that the most powerful MMA org on the planet, roughly valued last year at over a half a billion dollars by CNBC, is taking time to send one of their former champions to see on the DL how Uncle Billy Bob’s Punch-Kick-Choke scrapfest running shows somewhere out in East Podunk is doing business?!
Check out a hot prospect fighter, sure.
But business practices?
Wouldn’t that be like Nordstrom’s sending spies to ABC to see how they run a store?
Or Gordon Ramsay sending a prep cook over to Carl Jr’s for recipes and tips on dinner service?
Not trying to shred you here, just trying to suss out your POV on this thing…
I have known many business people that have used this tactic … and why not tito?
There’s better people to send around than Tito….I don’t think the man is smart enought to conduct organized espionage at that level. :)