Translucence Research Inc. Sued By Temujin Labs For Alleged Theft of Intellectual Property

Theft. Misogyny. Physical intimidation. Blackmail over rumors of Chinese espionage. 

Those are a few of the allegations brought against a group of executives who sabotaged their company and launched a rival business with stolen property, according to a new lawsuit filed by Delaware-based tech company Temujin Labs. 

In November 2021, Temujin Labs filed a lawsuit with the US District Court for the Northern District of California against rival company Translucence Research Inc. It’s the latest development in an ongoing legal battle between current and former executives of Temujin Labs. 

The new lawsuit levies numerous allegations against Translucence Research, including trade secret misappropriation, trade libel, intentional interference with contracts, and civil conspiracy. 

Both Temujin Labs and Translucence Research Inc. are financial technology companies focused on developing software.

Temujin’s lawsuit names eight defendants at Translucence Research, many of whom helped found the company after leaving Temujin Labs. However, the lawsuit focuses primarily on Ben Fisch, Charles Lu, and Benedikt Bünz, who allegedly “hatched a plan to steal intellectual property” from Temujin following the death of co-founder John Powers in July 2020.

The lawsuit alleges that Fisch, Lu and Bünz “took advantage” of their high-level positions at Temujin Labs to “destroy the credibility of the surviving co-founders, defame the very technology they were hired to create, unlawfully open source highly sensitive Temujin codes, and stir fear and foster mistrust among rank-and-file.”

After “shaking Temujin Delaware to the core,” Lu, Fisch and Bünz quit their jobs and launched Translucence Research the following day on October 22, 2020, the lawsuit said. 

“This is a case of predatory and predaceous corporate behavior, motivated by naked and objectional [sic] greed of Lu, Fisch and Bünz, via depraved and unscrupulous methods, and loomed on the backdrop of misogyny,” the lawsuit said. “Plaintiffs are entitled to injunctive relief redressing these wrongs, as well as monetary, exemplary, and punitive damages.”

Before leaving the company, Fisch and others attempted to “poison” the reputation of Temujin in the eyes of its customers, employees, business partners and investors, the lawsuit said. 

The lawsuit accuses the defendants of sabotaging Tejumin’s Amazon Web Service during a critical period of the developmental process. Lu tried to extort the company, the lawsuit said, demanding $5 million or he would publicly claim that the company’s founders had engaged in sex-trafficking, sold drugs and were spies for China. After leaving Temujin, Lu spread “malicious lies” about Temujin’s business relationships and “malicious rumors” about a female employee, according to the lawsuit.

As for Fisch, the lawsuit accuses him of defrauding Temujin to invest “a lot of money and engineering manpower” for academic research without fulfilling his own obligations. Fisch also “dehumanized employees” and once “threw a bottled water at a founding team member in the office, frightening them from ever returning to the office again,” the lawsuit said. 

But the interpersonal issues in the lawsuit are outnumbered by allegations of theft. The lawsuit accuses the defendants of stealing Temujin data and intellectual property in fall 2020, which they then used to promote their new company, Translucence Research. 

Once the defendants had founded Translucence Research, they continued to damage Temujin’s reputation, falsely claiming to hold the legal rights to all of Temujin’s coding and engineering, the lawsuit said. 

Fisch, Lu and Bünz also interfered with Temujin’s contracts, according to the lawsuit, which said that their “malicious actions” resulted in “substantial loss and damage.”

The defendants also continued to attack Temujin’s relationships with investors, business partners and its own employees, which were frequently solicited to abandon Temujin for Translucence, the lawsuit said. 

“As a consequence of the foregoing deliberate and malicious actions by Defendants…Plaintiffs have been damaged, including economically and tangibly,” the lawsuit said. “Plaintiffs’ business operations have been disrupted and delayed, they have been forced to incur significant attorneys’ fees and others [sic] costs to combat Defendants’ efforts, and they have suffered and/or will suffer lost business opportunities.”

The Temujin lawsuit seeks an injunction against Translucence Research for using stolen intellectual property, and also asks for damages and attorneys’ fees.

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