Ticket Firm Denies Appropriating Trade Secrets

Electronic ticketing firm ETM Entertainment Network has denied the charges that it illegally appropriated trade secrets when it copied a former executive’s 7,000-name Rolodex.

Peter Schniedermeier, president of the Costa Mesa firm, claims that Ralph Dennis Finfrock had no objection when the staff asked to copy the massive phone list. The Rolodex contained contact and personal information about such entertainment and sports figures as Barbra Streisand, Sugar Ray Leonard, Andre Agassi and Las Vegas casino magnate Steve Wynn, according to court documents.

“He was asked if he wanted to stay and watch the copies be made,” Schniedermeier said. “He declined.”

Finfrock, the company’s former president of international sales, filed a civil suit in Orange County Superior Court earlier this month.

He and his wife, Beverly Kay Finfrock, who also is a former ETM employee and a plaintiff in the lawsuit, are seeking unspecified damages and an injunction to prevent ETM from using what they contend are trade secrets.

But Schniedermeier insists that Dennis Finfrock, who now works for rival Advantix Inc. in Newport Beach, is seeking to harm ETM by preventing the company from using information that relates directly to its current business dealings.

This data include information about ETM customers, bankers, financial consultants and technical partners, according to documents filed by ETM in response to the suit.

Finfrock’s attorney, John Andrew Miller, denied ETM’s allegations.

“Mr. Finfrock has conducted himself completely aboveboard,” Miller said. “This is an action to recover information that they’re not entitled to use.”

ETM staffers also denied allegations in the lawsuit that it does not have a backup system for its computer network. The firm sells tickets through the Internet and at electronic kiosks in grocery stores and shopping malls.