SUPERIOR COURT OF NEW JERSEY
APPELLATE DIVISION
A-5704-98T1F
TRADESOFT TECHNOLOGIES, INC.,
Plaintiff-Respondent,
v.
THE FRANKLIN MUTUAL INSURANCE
COMPANY, INC.,
Defendant-Appellant.
Argued February 1, 2000 - Decided March 13, 2000
Before Judges Pressler, Landau and Ciancia.
On appeal from the Superior Court of New Jersey,
Law Division, Morris County.
Anthony P. Pasquarelli argued the cause for
appellant (Sweet, Pasquarelli & Wiebalk,
attorneys; Mr. Pasquarelli, on the brief).
Carl E. Ailara Jr. argued the cause for
respondent.
The opinion of the court was delivered by
PRESSLER, P.J.A.D.
This declaratory judgment action arises out of the advertising
injury coverage of the casualty and general liability policy issued
by defendant The Franklin Mutual Insurance Company, Inc.,
(Franklin) to plaintiff Tradesoft Technologies, Inc. (Tradesoft).
Franklin appeals from the entry of a partial summary judgment
declaring its obligation to defend and indemnify Tradesoft in
respect of an action brought against Tradesoft in the Federal
District Court for the District of New Jersey by EBS Dealing
Resources, Inc. and EBS Nominees Limited (collectively EBS) in
which they alleged patent and trademark infringement as well as
common law causes of action including misappropriation of trade
secrets, breach of contract, tortious interference with contract,
and unfair competition.
We note at the outset that the judgment appealed from is
interlocutory in that it disposed only of Tradesoft's claims for
defense and indemnity, reserving for future litigation the
remaining five counts of Tradesoft's complaint whereby it alleged
causes of action for breach of contract, breach of the duty of good
faith and fair dealing, breach of fiduciary duty, unjust
enrichment, and bad faith denial of an insurance claim. It need
hardly be said at this late date in the development of our
appellate jurisprudence that a judgment is not final and hence is
not eligible for an appeal as of right unless it disposes of all
claims and issues as among all parties. See, e.g., CPC Intern.
Inc. v. Hartford Acc.,
316 N.J. Super. 351, 365 (App. Div. 1998),
certif. denied,
158 N.J. 74 (1999); Stump v. Whibco,
314 N.J.
Super. 560, 564-565 (App. Div. 1998); Scalza v. Shop Rite
Supermarkets,
304 N.J. Super. 636, 638 (App. Div. 1997).
We are well aware that R. 4:42-2 authorizes the trial court to
certify an interlocutory order as final and that the trial court
did so here on defendant's motion and over plaintiff's objection.
But that authorization is expressly limited by the rule to an order
that "would be subject to process to enforce a judgment pursuant to
R. 4:59 if it were final and if the trial court certifies that
there is no just reason for the delay of such enforcement...."
Obviously, this interlocutory order is not subject to enforcement
by way of execution and was, therefore, not eligible for
certification. We have repeatedly held that piecemeal appeals are
ordinarily contrary to the fair and expeditious conclusion of
litigation; that the determination of whether the interests of the
litigants and the judicial process otherwise requires can only be
made by this court on a motion for leave to appeal properly brought
pursuant to R. 2:5-6; and that the calendar of this court is not
subject to the control of the trial court by way of an improvident
finality certification. See, e.g., Golden Estates v. Continental
Cas.,
317 N.J. Super. 82, 87-88 (App. Div. 1998); DeFelice v.
Beall,
274 N.J. Super. 592, 595, n.1 (App. Div.), certif. denied,
138 N.J. 268 (1994); Delbridge v. Jann Holding Company,
164 N.J.
Super. 506, 509-510 (App. Div. 1978). While we have the option,
therefore, of simply dismissing this appeal as having been taken
from an improvidently certified order, see, e.g., Hallowell v.
American Honda Motor Co., Inc.,
297 N.J. Super. 314, 318 (App. Div.
1997), we have nevertheless elected to grant leave to appeal nunc
pro tunc in the interest of substantial justice, particularly
because of the inevitable effect of the order appealed from on the
remaining claims.
We also point out, by way of preliminary observation, that we
were advised shortly before oral argument that the federal action
had been terminated by amicable agreement. Although plaintiff
declined to inform either defendant or this court of the terms of
the settlement, its attorney did advise us at oral argument that
under the terms of the settlement, it was not obliged to make any
monetary payment to the federal plaintiffs. Accordingly, it is
clear, and plaintiff did not suggest to the contrary, that this is
no longer a claim for defense or indemnity, but rather a claim for
reimbursement of defense costs alone.
We begin by noting that while advertising injury coverage has
apparently been considered in this state in only one reported case,
FileNet Corp. v. Chubb,
324 N.J. Super. 476 (Law Div. 1997), aff'd
o.b.,
324 N.J. Super. 419 (App. Div. 1999), that coverage,
employing substantially similar language from policy to policy, has
received extensive consideration by the federal courts and some of
our sister states, and that body of jurisprudence informs our
determination of the issues that are novel in this jurisdiction.
It is, of course, well settled that the determination of
whether a liability policy entitles the insured to a defense of an
action brought against it requires first that the allegations of
the complaint be compared with the policy language. "When the two
correspond, the duty to defend arises, irrespective of the claim's
actual merit." Voorhees v. Preferred Mut. Ins. Co.,
128 N.J. 165,
173 (1992). And if there is an ambiguity in the policy language,
principles of insurance contract construction require the ambiguity
to be resolved in the insured's favor. Id. at 175.
We consider first the policy language. The advertising injury
coverage is contained in Section 11 of Part IIB of the policy,
entitled "Supplemental Coverages." To the extent applicable here,
the supplemental coverage applies only to:
Advertising injury arising out of an offense committed in
the course of advertising goods, products, or services of
your business-operations covered here.
[Emphasis in the original.]
The policy further provides that:
Advertising injury means solely the following:
1. Infringement of copyright, slogan, or title.
2. Misappropriation of advertising ideas or style of
doing business.
3. Oral or written publication of material that:
slanders or libels a person or organization;
disparages a person's or organization's goods,
products, or services.
4. Oral or written publication of material that
violates a person's right of privacy.
[Emphasis added.]
The coverage expressly excludes "[i]njury arising out of oral or
written publication of material whose first publication took place
prior to the beginning of this policy or such coverage under this
policy." Another express exclusion not brought to the attention of
the trial court but material here is for "[i]njury arising out of
breach of contract, other than misappropriation of advertising
ideas under an implied contract." Finally, also not brought to the
attention of the trial court, the coverage provides that "[a]
covered offense must take place within the policy term...."
The issue, of course, is whether the allegations of the
federal complaint filed by EBS triggered Franklin's duty to defend
Tradesoft under the advertising injury coverage of the policy. In
general terms, these are the facts underlying the federal
complaint. EBS developed and obtained a patent protecting a spot
foreign exchange electronic brokering system and registered the
trademark "EBS." The EBS system essentially allows the EBS
subscribers, primarily banks, to anonymously broadcast offers to
buy and sell currency at a specified price and amount against a
different specified currency. John Bunch was EBS's Director of
Product Development between February 1993 and November 1997. He is
an expert in the foreign exchange trading market and the electronic
application involved in the EBS system. Dan White, through his
company Daniel White Consulting Inc., was an EBS consultant between
1993 and 1997, functioning as the senior designer in the EBS
Technology Planning Department. In February 1997, while both were
still working for EBS, Bunch and White incorporated Tradesoft and
began to solicit brokerage houses as customers for their electronic
foreign currency trading service apparently patterned on the EBS
system. Their letters of solicitation referred to Tradesoft
personnel as having been "key to the design, delivery and
management of the EBS system."
Among the brokerage houses so solicited was Harlow, Meyer,
Savage, LLC (Harlow), with whom negotiations ensued. Bunch and
White then, sometime in the fall of 1997, severed their respective
relationships with EBS, who, on November 17, 1997, notified both
Bunch and White of their obligations to it in respect of the EBS
proprietary information which they possessed. By April 1998,
Tradesoft, in its written negotiations with Harlow, was referring
to its electronic trading system as "ABS." A written agreement
between Harlow and Tradesoft was executed in May 1998. The
agreement included a provision whereby Tradesoft agreed to
indemnify Harlow against any claim that the ABS software Tradesoft
was providing Harlow under their agreement infringed upon a third
party's intellectual property. Subsequent to the execution of the
agreement, Tradesoft purchased the Franklin policy here in dispute.
Its effective date was June 12, 1998. In July 1998 Tradesoft
provided Harlow with its prototype electronic brokerage system, and
at about that time created a website describing its ABS system.
EBS filed a nine-count complaint against Tradesoft, Bunch,
White, and Daniel White Consulting in the federal court in November
1998. The first count alleges patent infringement. The second and
third counts allege trademark infringement. The fourth count
alleges common-law misappropriation of trade secrets and other
proprietary information. The fifth and sixth counts allege breach
of contract by Bunch and White respectively based on their
appropriation of EBS intellectual property. The seventh count
alleges tortious interference by Bunch and Tradesoft with EBS's
contractual relationship with White by causing White to disclose to
them EBS's confidential information. The eighth count alleges
tortious interference by White and Tradesoft with EBS's contractual
relationship with Bunch by causing Bunch to disclose to them EBS's
confidential information. The ninth count charges all three,
Tradesoft, Bunch and White, with unfair competition. The preceding
factual allegations, in thirty numbered paragraphs, describe the
conduct complained of with virtually no dates stated, alleging only
that the EBS system was launched in 1993, that White was its
consultant between 1993 and 1998, and that Bunch was its employee
during the same period. The dates we have referred to above appear
in the documents filed in this action.
Following the filing of the federal action, Franklin, after
extensive investigation of the matter, declined to defend and
indemnify. Tradesoft then filed this action, promptly moving for
summary judgment before Franklin had an opportunity to commence
discovery. The summary judgment was granted and, in our view, was
granted improvidently. Franklin appealed and, as we have noted,
during the pendency of the action, the federal action was settled
in a manner obviating Tradesoft's indemnity claim.
Franklin's challenge to the summary judgment is essentially
two-fold. It argues first that it has no coverage obligation at
all because the activities of Tradesoft and its principals giving
rise to the EBS complaint were pre-policy. The policy language on
which it relies, above quoted, relieves it from obligation for
"injury arising out of oral or written publication of material
whose first publication took place prior to the beginning of this
policy." It also argues, for various reasons and based on various
theories, that except for the allegations of trademark
infringement, none of the activities of Tradesoft and its
principals alleged by EBS come within the advertising injury
coverage as circumscribed by the policy's definitions. We find
considerable merit in both arguments.
We address first the issue of pre-policy activity under the
so-called first-publication exclusion, noting that resolution of
this question requires factual determinations that cannot be made
on the basis of the face of the federal complaint alone. Insofar
as we understand this record there were two basic reasons, both of
which we reject, for the judge's refusal to credit the pre-policy
activity defense despite the undisputed fact that Tradesoft had
marketed its competing system under the ABS name to Harlow prior to
its obtaining of this insurance. The first is factual. Tradesoft
argued, and the judge agreed, that the only activity referred to in
the federal complaint giving rise to the alleged advertising injury
suffered by EBS was Tradesoft's creation of its website, and since
the website was created after it obtained the insurance, that
cannot be said to have constituted a pre-policy activity. That
premise, however, is simply not so. The reference to the website
in the "Statement of Facts" portion of the complaint does not
allege that the website was the beginning of the advertising
injury. Rather, the allegations detail the entire course of the
alleged offensive conduct of Tradesoft and its principals,
including its pre-website soliciting activities, and then refer to
the website as "describing" the competing ABS system. And although
it is alleged that the "website markets the system under the
trademark 'ABS'," that it is not the first marketing referred to in
the complaint, which refers specifically to the pre-policy
marketing of the system to Harlow.
We also find untenable the court's conceptual basis for
rejecting the first-publication defense. The court's reasoning was
based on the text of the policy's four-part definition of
advertising injury quoted above, namely, 1) copyright, trademark
and tradename infringement, 2) misappropriation of advertising
ideas or style of doing business, 3) oral or written publication of
slander and libel, and 4) oral or written invasion of an
individual's right to privacy. Only the definitions of defamation
and invasion of the right to privacy define the advertising injury
in terms of "oral or written publication" constituting such an
offense. The infringement and misappropriation definitions do not.
The verbiage of the pre-policy exclusion also uses the term "oral
or written publication." The court thus concluded that the
omission of the term "oral or written publication" from the
infringement and misappropriation definitions created an ambiguity,
namely, a feasible interpretation of the policy by which the pre
policy exclusion does not apply at all to infringement and
misappropriation but only to defamation and invasion of privacy.
Since the gravamen of the EBS complaint was only, if anything,
infringement or misappropriation, the judge resolved that purported
ambiguity in the insured's favor by concluding that there was no
policy exclusion for pre-policy activity constituting infringement
or misappropriation.
In so ruling, the judge relied on Irons Home Builders, Inc. v.
Auto Owners Ins. Co.,
839 F. Supp. 1260, 1265 (E.D. Mich. 1993),
which had so reasoned in construing identical policy language.
That rationale was, thereafter, rejected by Applied Bolting
Technology Products, Inc. v. USF&G,
942 F. Supp. 1029, 1037 (E.D.
Pa. 1996), on these convincing grounds:
In my view, the first-publication exclusion
must be read to apply to the entire definition
of "advertising injury," which includes the
offenses of "misappropriation of advertising
ideas or style of doing business" and
"infringement of copyright, title, or slogan."
In the policy, the term "advertising injury"
is always surrounded by quotation marks, and
it appears with quotation marks in the first
publication exclusion. "Advertising injury"
is defined by the four, not two, offenses
expressly set forth in the policy to define
"advertising injury." The first-publication
exclusion bars coverage for "'advertising
injury' ... [a]rising out of oral or written
publication of material whose first
publication took place before the beginning of
the policy period." I read this exclusion to
mean that "advertising injury," which I must
assume the insurance company intentionally
surrounded with quotation marks when it used
that term in the exclusion, has the same four
subpart meaning when used in the exclusion
that it has every other time it appears in
the policy surrounded by quotation marks.
The exclusion must be read to give effect
to the plain meaning of "advertising injury."
When that is done, it is certainly irrelevant
that some of the language in the exclusion
happens to match some of the words in sub
parts (a) and (b) of the definition of
"advertising injury" but not match some of the
language in subparts (c) and (d).
Accordingly, I find that the first-publication
exclusion applies to all of the offenses
listed in the four-subpart definition of
"advertising injury," which would include any
"advertising injury" alleged by Turner.
Finally, it seems evident that the first
publication exclusion was inserted in the
policy to avoid precisely the situation
presented in this case. In December, 1994,
Applied began advertising that its DTIs
satisfied ASTM F959-94a. Thereafter, on
January 18, 1995, Applied obtained a CGL
policy providing coverage for "advertising
injury," and then continued its advertising
campaign by republishing its claim "all DTIs
made to ASTM F959-94a." Obviously, USF & G
never intended to provide coverage for such
republications during the policy period.
We find the reasoning of Applied Bolting completely persuasive. In
our view, application of the first-publication exception to
defamation and invasion of privacy alone not only constitutes a
tortured reading of the coverage, but is, as well, contrary to the
legal concepts involved. That is to say, it is obvious that there
can be no defamation without publication__publication is at the
heart of that tort and, indeed, defines it. The same is true of
invasion of privacy. On the other hand, we think it clear that an
infringement or misappropriation cause does not require publication
as an element and hence there is no need to so define those
offenses. Our point is that the use of the term "publication" in
respect of defamation and invasion of privacy defines the offense
and not the injury. The publication element of the injury is
obviously common to all four categories of advertising injury, and
the first-publication exclusion is, therefore, also common to all.
In any event, we fully endorse Applied Bolting and hold that the
first-publication exception applies to infringement and
misappropriation.
Since all of Tradesoft's coverage claims are comprehended by
the infringement and misappropriation definitions, if covered at
all, it is essential to fix the time vis-a-vis the date of issuance
of the policy when the first offending publications took place.
From the facts of record on this motion, it appears that
Tradesoft's solicitation of brokers, its negotiation and ensuing
agreement with Harlow and the representations made respecting the
experience and expertise of its principals, all predated the policy
and that the website, created and appearing on the Internet
thereafter, was a republication. On the other hand, it also
appears that Tradesoft has refused to disclose certain relevant
documents to Franklin, apparently on the ground of trade secret,
that might assist in the date-fixing determination. And, as we
have said, there was no full opportunity for discovery. As we view
the matter, based on this record the onus is now on Tradesoft, as
respondent to Franklin's summary judgment motion, to adduce facts
contradicting or at least raising a factual dispute with respect to
the first-publication date of its alleged infringement and
misappropriation, and both parties are certainly entitled to
discovery on that issue, subject, if necessary, to a protective
order pursuant to R. 4:10-3 in respect of Tradesoft's alleged trade
secrets or other confidential information. We remand for that
purpose. If Franklin can demonstrate the offending publications
first took place prior to the effective date of the policy, it will
be entitled to the grant of its motion for summary judgment.
Although the first-publication issue may be completely
dispositive, we are nevertheless constrained to comment briefly on
several of Franklin's arguments that were rejected by the trial
court.
First is the issue of whether a patent infringement may
constitute an advertising injury as defined by the policy. The
question arises because of the amendment of
35 U.S.C.A.
§271(a),
effective January 1, 1996, which expressly included an offer to
sell as a patent infringement. Prior to that amendment, the courts
were virtually unanimous in concluding that a patent infringement
was not a covered advertising injury under the "copyright, slogan
or title" or similar formulations. See Novell Inc. v. Federal Ins.
Co.,
141 F.3d 983 (10th Cir. 1998); Microtech Research, Inc. v.
Nationwide Mutual Ins. Co.,
40 F.3d 968 (9th Cir. 1994); Intex
Plastic Sales Co. v. United National Ins. Co.,
23 F.3d 254 (9th
Cir. 1994); Everest & Jennings, Inc. v. American Motorist Ins. Co.,
23 F.3d 226 (9th Cir. 1994); Iolab Corp. v. Seaboard Surety Co.,
15 F.3d 1500 (9th Cir. 1994); United States Fidelity and Guaranty Co.
v. Star Technologies, Inc.,
935 F. Supp. 1110 (D. Oregon 1996);
Heil Co. v. The Hartford Accident and Indemnity Co.,
937 F. Supp. 1355 (E.D. Wisc. 1996); I.C.D. Industries, Inc. v. Federal Ins.
Co.,
879 F. Supp. 480 (E.D. Pa. 1995); Atlantic Mutual Ins. Co. v.
Rotek Corp.,
857 F. Supp. 423 (E.D. Pa. 1994); National Union Fire
Ins. Co. of Pittsburgh v. Siliconix, Inc.,
729 F. Supp. 77 (N.D.
Cal. 1989); Bank of the West,
833 P.2d 545 (Cal. 1992); Julian v.
Liberty Mutual Ins. Co.,
682 A.2d 611 (App. Ct. Conn. 1996).
That conventional wisdom changed with the 1996 patent law
amendment. As explained by Maxconn, Inc. v. Truck Ins. Exchange,
88 Cal. Rptr 2d 750, 754 (Ct. App. 1999), prior to the amendment,
a patent infringement required the manufacture, use or sale of the
patented invention. An offer to sell a patented device was not
regarded as an infringement. The effect of the amendment,
therefore, was to render a patent infringement based on an offer to
sell a coverable advertising injury. The question then is whether
it is in fact an advertising injury covered under the terms of this
policy.
To begin with, the courts agree that an "offer to sell" patent
infringement is not covered by the copyright/trademark infringement
definition for the simple reason that that definition is clear,
unambiguous and exclusive and cannot, therefore, be reasonably
stretched or manipulated to include patent infringement. The
debate, rather, is whether such patent infringement comes within
the misappropriation definition, that is, "misappropriation of
advertising ideas or style of doing business." At least one court
has held that the misappropriation definition is sufficiently
ambiguous to encompass "offer to sell" patent infringement, see
Everett Associates v. Transcontinental Ins. Co.,
57 F. Supp. 874
(N.D. Cal. 1999). This jurisdiction has, however, in FileNet
Corp., supra, 324 N.J. Super. at 476, already joined those courts
that have expressly rejected this notion. See, e.g., Applied
Bolting, supra,
942 F. Supp. 1260; Owens-Brockway Glass Container,
Inc. v. International Ins. Co.,
884 F. Supp. 363 (E.D. Cal. 1995);
St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co. v. Advanced Interventional Systems,
824 F. Supp. 583 (E.D. Va. 1993); Mez Industries, Inc. v. Pacific
National Ins. Co.,
90 Cal. Rptr.2d 721 (Ct. App. 1999). While we
recognize that some of these cases were decided prior to the 1996
amendment of the patent law, we are nevertheless persuaded that
their rationale is unaffected thereby. We agree that patent
infringement, whether by offer to sell or otherwise, is simply not
within the commonly understood meaning of "advertising ideas" or
"style of doing business." Moreover, as the Law Division noted in
FileNet, supra, 324 N.J. Super. at 499-500, the effect of including
patent infringement within the misappropriation definition "would
be to find that the parties went to considerable trouble to list
numerous common law torts and numerous other specifically defined
offenses but also intended to provide coverage for a separate and
distinct class of claims, namely patent infringement, without so
much as a passing reference to the concept or the theory." Thus,
as FileNet concluded, id. at 500, quoting St. Paul Fire & Marine
Ins. Co., supra, 824 F. Supp. at 586:
it is nonsense to suppose that if the parties
had intended the insurance policy in question
to cover patent infringement claims, the
policy would explicitly cover infringements of
"copyright, title or slogan", but then include
patent infringement, sub silentio, in a
different provision, by reference to
"unauthorized taking of ... [the] style of
doing business.
We continue to adhere to that view and conclude, therefore, that an
"offer to sell" patent infringement is not encompassed by the
advertising injury coverage of this policy.See footnote 11
We address briefly the six common-law tort counts of the
federal action against Tradesoft. Although not raised by the
parties, we think it plain that the two breach of contract counts
are excluded from coverage by the specific exclusion of "injury
arising out of breach of contract, other than misappropriation of
advertising ideas under an implied contract." The facts underlying
the breach of contract counts allege express contracts between EBS
and Bunch and EBS and White that included confidentiality
agreements respecting EBS's intellectual property. Thus, we are
satisfied that these two counts of the EBS complaint do not match
Franklin's coverage obligations as set forth in the policy.
That brings us to the remaining common law counts: common law
misappropriation of trade secrets and other proprietary
information, tortious interference with contractual relationships
and common-law unfair competition. The question, of course, is
whether these torts are within the coverage. That question brings
us back to the basic policy meaning of an advertising injury. The
policy defines it as an injury "arising out of an offense committed
in the course of advertising goods, products or services...." But
not every injury is covered__the only covered injuries are
copyright, slogan or title infringement, misappropriation of
advertising ideas or style of doing business, defamation and
invasion of privacy. And, moreover, the injury must result from an
offense committed in the course of advertising. Said another way,
in order for there to be coverage there must be a causal connection
between the advertising and the injury and the injury must fall
within one of the four categories defined by the policy. See Frog
Switch & Manufacturing Co., Inc. v. Travelers Ins. Co.,
193 F.3d 742, 751 n.8 (3d Cir. 1999). Thus, we think it plain that the
import of the advertising injury coverage was to afford protection
to the insured for offenses committed while undertaking advertising
activities that caused specifically defined injuries. It was not
reasonably intended by either party to this insurance contract nor
reasonably understood by them to offer liability coverage for the
entire gamut of business torts simply because after commission of
the basic tortious conduct there was a sale or offer to sell. As
expressed by the Ninth Circuit in Simply Fresh Fruit, Inc. v.
Continental Ins. Co.,
94 F.3d 1219, 1223 (9th Cir. 1996), in order
to invoke the coverage of the policy, "the advertising activities
must cause the injury _ not merely expose it." [Emphasis added.]
As we see it then, the tortious interference claims alleged by
EBS do not allege an advertising injury within the intendment of
the policy__they allege rather an offense whose gravamen is
distinctly different from, and which was committed long before, any
advertising activity, and hence long before the policy term began.
That is to say, the eventual advertising exposed the injury
sustained by EBS as a result of the alleged tortious interference
with contractual relationships. The advertising activity itself
did not cause the injury.
With respect to EBS's claim of misappropriation of trade
secrets, we note first that the federal courts have distinguished
between trade secrets related to manufacturing and production and
those related to marketing and sales, holding that the
appropriation of manufacturing and production trade secrets does
not meet the required causal nexus since the injury is the
misappropriation and not the advertising by which the
misappropriation was revealed. See Frog Switch, supra, 193 F.
3d
at 751, n.8; Simply Fresh Fruit, supra, 94 F.
3d at 1223.
Misappropriation of trade secrets relating to marketing and sales
has, however, been held to constitute an advertising injury within
the misappropriation definition since it constitutes a
misappropriation of advertising ideas within the evident intendment
of the policy. See Sentex Systems, Inc. v. Hartford Acc. & Indem.
Co.,
93 F.3d 578, 580 (9th Cir. 1996). The misappropriation
alleged by EBS was of "confidential information concerning the
computer code, proposed modifications ..., confidential business
plans, customer surveys and marketing studies relating to the EBS
dealing system, including in-depth analysis of liquidity
development, deployment and sale of the system." While the subject
of the misappropriation thus alleged is not merely sales and
marketing, we are satisfied that its sales and marketing components
are sufficiently substantial to invoke the coverage provided the
first-publication exclusion does not otherwise bar the coverage and
provided further that the offense was committed after the
effective date of the policy.
The final count of the EBS complaint alleges unfair
competition in broad terms, claiming only that the actions of
Tradesoft and its principals were so "especially egregious and
malicious" as to constitute "wilful and deliberate unfair
competition...." We are satisfied that by these allegations, the
EBS complaint did nothing more than encompass all of the other
allegations of the complaint as a basis for seeking punitive
damages. No advertising injuries, other than those previously
alleged and with which we have already dealt, are alleged, and
hence no new or separate coverage duty was thereby triggered.
To summarize, we are satisfied that although the first
publication exclusion appears to apply here to preclude coverage,
questions of fact have been raised which require further
exploration by way of discovery and determination by way of
findings of fact. If the decision favors Tradesoft, we are further
satisfied that the only covered counts are copyright/trademark
infringement and misappropriation of trade secrets. Should these
claims ultimately be deemed to be covered, then, in fixing
Tradesoft's damages for deprivation of a defense to the federal
action, an apportionment must be made as to covered and uncovered
claims. See, e.g., SL Industries v. American Motorists,
128 N.J. 188 (1992); Voorhees, supra,
128 N.J. 165.
Several issues remain. First, we reject Franklin's claim that
an apportionment must be made as between the defense of claims for
damages and claims for injunctive relief. Since each count of the
complaint demanded both, we are of the view that an apportionment
of this nature would, under the circumstances, be impractical,
illogical and unfair. Second, while we agree with Franklin that
Daniel White Consulting, Inc. as a separate entity is not entitled
to coverage under the policy, it is plain that Dan White himself
is. He is a principal of Tradesoft and was sued by EBS in that
capacity. Finally, we reject Franklin's reliance on the so-called
known-risk doctrine in order to avoid coverage substantially for
the reasons stated by the trial judge. See CPC International,
supra, 316 N.J. Super. at 378.
The summary judgment appealed from is reversed and we remand
for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
Footnote: 1 1As to the trademark infringement counts, these are obviously covered by the policy, and Franklin does not argue to the contrary.