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June 3, 2016 CapitalPress.com 3 Livestock company wins trade secret injunction Lawsuit accuses ex-employee of launching rival Chinese company By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press An Oregon livestock nu- trition company has won an injunction against a former employee accused of stealing trade secrets to start his own company in China. Omnigen Research of Cor- vallis, Ore., has filed a lawsuit alleging that scientist Yongq- iang Wang is trying to sell knock-offs of its feed additives in violation of confidentiality agreements. U.S. District Judge Mi- chael McShane has ordered Wang and his wife, as well as the companies under their con- trol, to stop using any of Om- nigen’s copyrighted materials and trade secrets. The preliminary injunction also instructs them to return all materials pertaining to Omnigen’s technology, and turn over their electronic me- dia, among other provisions. Omnigen was originally founded in 2002 by Oregon State University professor Neil Forsberg and his grad- uate student, Steve Punten- ney, who developed patent- ed feed additives aimed at counteracting hemmorhagic bowel syndrome in dairy cows. A decade later, the firm was bought for nearly $23 million by the Phibro Animal Health Corp., a publicly traded company based in New York. Roughly 20 percent of the U.S. dairy cow herd is treated with Omnigen products, which are also catching on in several foreign countries and have re- ceived regulatory approval to be sold in China, according to Phibro financial documents. According to Omnigen’s lawsuit, cofounder Forsberg took Wang “under his wing” when Wang was an OSU grad- uate student and asked him to join the company. “However, at some point, Wang apparently decided he owed no loyalty to OmniGen Research,” the complaint said. “So, while continuing to work at OmniGen Research, he shirked his contractual and fi- duciary obligations to secretly form two businesses, Bioshen and Mirigen, to compete with OmniGen Research with the help of his wife and associ- ates.” Before he quit in 2013, Wang had access to its confi- dential “research and exper- imentation methods” as well as improvements made to Omnigen products, such as in- gredient sources and ratios, the complaint said. Wang allegedly took out a “sham” patent in China for products with ingredients sim- ilar to Omnigen’s, but which listed his wife and associates as the inventors, and has ob- tained a Chinese production license for a feed additive, the complaint said. Last year, the companies formed by Wang held a sym- posium on livestock health in China at which he presented Omnigen’s “illegally copied” copyrighted slides, the com- plaint said. In response to the com- plaint, Wang admits obtaining a Chinese patent, launching Bioshen and Mirigen and orga- nizing a scientific conference but denies that he relied on any of Omnigen’s trade secrets or confidential information. Omnigen’s methods of test- ing feed additives, as well as its “processes for making ad- ditives, sourcing ingredients, mixing ingredients, ingredient ratios and scientific knowl- edge” do not qualify as trade secrets, according to Wang’s answer. Wang also claims that he was enticed to quit a faculty position at OSU to work for Omnigen with the promise of receiving a share of the profits if the company was sold. Forsberg, the co-founder, unjustly enriched himself by breaching that promise when Phibro bought Omnigen, Wang alleges. “As a foreseeable result of Forsberg’s fraudulent conduct Wang has incurred economic damages consisting of a rea- sonable share of the proceeds that Forsberg received from the sale of OmniGen and the li- censing of its products,” Wang said in a counter-complaint. Wang has also requested that the judge reconsider the preliminary injunction, argu- ing it’s “vague, draconian, and outside the scope of a legiti- mate provisional remedy.” The defendants had an insufficient opportunity to respond to the injunction re- quest and requiring Wang to surrender his laptop and other electronic devices “effective- ly limits his ability to work,” according to a court docu- ment. PVMI pursues relicensing, new business plan By JOHN O’CONNELL Capital Press BEND, Ore. — The nonprofit organization that markets potato varieties de- veloped by the Idaho, Wash- ington and Oregon public breeding programs is coming up for renewal and is solicit- ing proposals from third par- ties interested in overseeing development of a new long- term business plan. The Potato Variety Man- agement Institute, incorporat- ed as a nonprofit organization in 2005 to collect royalties and market varieties for par- ticipants in the Northwest Potato Variety Development Program, plans to develop a 10-year business and succes- sion plan highlighting oppor- tunities for improvement. PVMI, which has set a June 15 application deadline and a March 15, 2017, dead- line for the business plan’s completion, emphasized in its request for proposals that the organization has already ac- complished more than found- ers originally anticipated. PVMI Executive Director Jeanne Debons said the or- ganization is also pursuing a five-year renewal of its master license agreement. PVMI partners include the Washington state, Oregon and Idaho potato commis- sions, the University of Idaho, Washington State University and Oregon State University and USDA. “Taking a fresh look at this agreement with new eyes on it is always a positive ap- proach,” said Michael Parella, dean of UI’s College of Agri- cultural and Life Sciences. Parella said the college is interviewing candidates for a new vice president for re- search, who will oversee the PVMI agreement. Courtesy of Linhai Zhang From left, Chuck Brown, Jeanne Debons, Darrin Culp and Zach Holden select single-hill potatoes for the Tri-State Potato Research and Breeding Program in 2011. The Potato Variety Management Institute, which markets the varieties, is issuing a request for proposals for a third party to help draft a vision for the organization’s future. “I intend to be active in PVMI going forward,” Parel- la added. Debons said PVMI’s nine-member board formed a subcommittee to oversee the renewal, and the three pota- to commissions suggested third-party guidance in de- veloping a business plan, in- volving input from all of the partners. “We’re trying to make this a process that involves every- one so people can contribute to PVMI’s future direction,” Debons said. Debons said the business plan will also provide doc- umentation that more accu- rately describes what PVMI has become since an Oregon consultant helped establish the original business and mar- keting plan. “When PVMI started 10 years ago, nobody knew what it was going to be because there was nothing like it,” Debons said. Debons said the Oregon consultant charged $50,000. PVMI’s annual budget is $230,000 and covers legal fees, licensing, staff time, travel and marketing efforts. PVMI contributed more than $2 million to the univer- sities and kept $500,000 in reserves through the end of 2015. During that time, the organization collected more than $500,000 from licensing its varieties and about $3.4 million in royalty revenue. Debons said PVMI has partnerships with more than a dozen foreign countries where its varieties are being evaluat- ed or grown. She believes promising new PVMI varieties including Blazer Russet, Payette Russet and Clearwater Russet could lead the organization to more than double its royalties with- in the next five years. Oregon Potato Commis- sion Executive Director Bill Brewer believes the third-par- ty analysis will enhance trans- parency about PVMI and demonstrate to the industry that the organization has ef- fectively tracked its varieties and collected royalties. “When we started, we didn’t think (PVMI) would be profitable and actually re- turning money for quite a few years,” Brewer said. Courtesy of ODFW The Imnaha wolf pack’s alpha male is shown after being refit- ted with a working GPS collar in 2011 in this file photo. 1 probable, 1confirmed wolf kill in Northeast Oregon By ERIC MORTENSON Capital Press Wolves killed a lamb and probably killed a calf in sep- arate attacks in late May, the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife reported. On the evening of May 20, a herder working on private land along the South Fork of the Walla Walla River near the Umatilla-Wallowa coun- ty line noticed a disturbance in the flock and saw four wolves, one with a dead lamb in its mouth. ODFW personnel in- vestigated the next day and confirmed the kill was done by wolves. Investiga- tors found a “drag trail” of bone, blood and wool, but the rest of the lamb appar- ently had been consumed overnight. Tracking collar data showed that OR-40, of the Walla Walla Pack, was near the sheep bedding ground at 3 a.m. on May 21. On May 23, a landowner checking cattle on private land in the Mud Creek area of Wallowa County found the remains of a dead calf. There was no clear evidence the 150-pound calf had been at- tacked by wolves, but marks on the rib, back and leg bones found scattered about the site indicated a predator with large teeth was responsible, according to an ODFW re- port. In addition, the calf was consumed in one night, also a hallmark of a wolf attack. Nonetheless, ODFW desig- nated the incident a “proba- ble” wolf attack rather than “confirmed.” Tracking collar GPS co- ordinates showed two mem- bers of the Shamrock Pack, OR-23 and OR-41, were in the area at different times on May 22 and May 23. ROP-23-4-2/#24 OSHA fines East Idaho potato processor $273,000 BOISE — The federal Oc- cupational Safety and Health Administration has fined an Eastern Idaho frozen potato pro- cessor $273,000 for safety vio- lations committed in December, according to an agency press release issued May 31. According to OSHA, Dick- inson Frozen Foods Inc. in Sug- ar City failed to protect its em- ployees and was not prepared to respond to a “potentially lethal” release of 1,300 pounds of anhy- drous ammonia on Dec. 1. Nobody was injured by the release, but employees at the fa- cility have been hospitalized as a result of past releases, OSHA said. OSHA investigators issued 19 serious and two willful cita- tions against Dickinson, after an investigation following the release uncovered “dozens of hazards re- lated to emergency response, re- spiratory protection and process safety management of hazardous materials violations.” Anhydrous ammonia is a colorless gas that can damage the eyes and respiratory sys- tem and can be explosive when mixed with certain chemicals. Violations pertained to em- ployees being exposed to liquid ammonia without protective clothing, entering a potentially life-threatening situation with- out self-contained breathing equipment, not being medically evaluated or fit tested to wear respirators, not receiving proper training in the facility’s emer- gency response plan and re- sponding to an emergency with- out proper emergency response training, according to OSHA. The facility employs 220 workers and produces processed potato products for use in con- sumer items such as frozen dinners. 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