In VSMSQ Structural Engineers, LLC v. Structural Consultants Assocs., Inc., decided last month by the Texas Court of Appeals (Houston), in an opinion by Justice Richard Hightower, joined by Justices Peter Kelly and Julie Countiss, SCA alleges that ex-SCA employees formed VSMsq, and used SCA's proprietary information to compete with SCA. Both companies are structural engineering firms, and SCA argued, among other things, that VSMsq engaged in tortious misappropriation by "posting of the images of buildings engineered by SCA on VSMsq's website for the purpose of promoting Appellants' engineering services."
Appellants sought to get the case thrown out under the Texas Citizens Participation Act—Texas's "anti-SLAPP" statute:
The TCPA "protects speech on matters of public concern by authorizing courts to conduct an early and expedited review of the legal merit of claims that seek to stifle speech through the imposition of civil liability and damages." … The TCPA provides a mechanism for dismissal of a "legal action" that is "based on or is in response to" … [among other things, a] party's exercise of its right of free speech….
