Paul Lazzaro of Paul Lazzaro and Associates (PLA) filed a lawsuit with the Pct. 5 Constable’s office Aug. 10 requesting a jury trial, according to a press release from Lazzaro.

According to the release, the marketing firm filed suit against Magnolia Ridge Development, LLC for “misappropriation of trade secrets.”

“It goes pretty deep into functionality, as well as copy and slogans and stuff,” Lazzaro said. “It appears in the builder’s brochure for the property as well.”

In the release, Lazzaro says he filed the suit through his attorneys after a letter he sent to Magnolia Ridge Development, LLC “decrying the misappropriation of his creative and copyrighted materials” was ignored.

Lazzaro said in an interview with the Tribune that his firm did marketing for Magnolia Ridge for a little more than a year, beginning in April 2008, before the development was sold to new owners.

“After a year of working on the marketing campaign for Magnolia Ridge, the development project it was promoting was sold to new owners,” says Lazzarro in the press release. “While the real estate that made up the project and various other tangible items owned by Magnolia Ridge were sold to new owners, the Plantiff’s contract with Magnolia Ridge and its unique and original art, copy, concepts, displays, marketing strategy and website content was not.”

Lazzarro also states in the release that Magnolia Ridge has continued to use his materials “without authorization.”

After the new owners took over the project, Lazzarro said there was a meeting to bring back people that had worked for the development with the previous owners.

“There was a big re-organization meeting in November (2009) to bring all the pieces back together again,” he said. “I made a full presentation at the time that was neither accepted nor rejected and I found my materials were being used anyway.”

Lazzaro said he feels he should be paid “a fair amount of money for the work I’ve done and they’ve capitalized on”

“My name is on their website endorsing their property and it’s ludicrous,” he said. “I’m endorsing it and being represented as director of marketing.”

Aaron Polatek, local developer with Magnolia Ridge, LLC, said Lazzaro’s firm was hired by previous owners Magnolia-Tex Acquisition Company, LLC to provide copyright material and design work designed specifically for Magnolia Ridge of which they were paid for.

“When we bought the project, we bought everything with it,” said Polatek. “We assumed what we bought from the previous project we owned.”

Polatek said Magnolia Ridge’s lawyers are still in the process of reviewing the claim and cannot comment more at this time, adding that the suit will not affect the progress of the development.

“It’s not going to affect the project in any way, but we obviously take it very seriously,” said Polatek.

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