Montreal-based IMAX has filed a lawsuit against a former company employee for stealing trade secrets and handing them to Chinese film companies in direct competition with them in China.

IMAX claimed in a high court in Los Angeles that its former employee Gary Tsui had stolen big-screen trade secrets and provided them to film companies in China, including a company called China Film Giant Screen (CFGS), where Tsui had earlier worked as a chief engineer.

The CFGS runs big screen businesses along with GDC Technology in China and together have been offering competitive pricing against IMAX, resulting in huge losses for the Canadian firm. IMAX has sued GDC Technology and Tsui for their illegal exploitation of its large format digital theatre projection system and film conversion technologies.

The Canadian firm stated in court documents that Tsui had stolen its giant screen projection and the source code for IMAX's 2D/3D conversion process and re-mastering technology, and provided them to Chinese film companies.

The company further said it had uncovered "voluminous, conclusive proof of Tsui's retention and theft of IMAX's confidential and proprietary trade secrets."

Responding to these accusations, Yang Xuepei, head of the China Research Institute of Film Science & Technology, said that all the technologies employed by CFGS were original and innovative and not copies of IMAX.

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)