A local start-up sausage maker says on its website, “You should know what’s in your sausage.”
But a butcher shop suing the young company claims to know exactly what is being stuffed in those sausages.
The Museum District’s Belmont Butchery’s claims that Sausage Craft and its owners, both former Belmont employees, copied recipes to help launch the company. (BizSense wrote about Sausage Craft in a story here.)
Belmont, which claims it is being harmed as a result, filed the suit against Sausage Craft and its founders, Chris Mattera and Brad Hemp, in Richmond Circuit Court on Dec. 6. The suit lists 12 counts, including trademark infringement, breach of fiduciary duty, injunctive relief and conspiracy to injure a business. Some counts ask for hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages and up to $1.8 million.
“Belmont Butchery guards its recipes and methodologies namely, trade secrets, in order to protect its business’s niche in the gourmet butcher shop market and give it a competitive advantage in business,” it says in the suit.
Devon Cushman, an attorney with Hirschler Fleischer representing Sausage Craft, said she is confident that her clients will be vindicated.
“What Belmont Butchery is alleging to be a trade secret isn’t a trade secret and aren’t subject to trade secret protection,” said Cushman. “My clients didn’t take these recipes. They are using new recipes they developed to create what they hoped to be a better product.”
There are specific sausages in question.
Indeed, Belmont requested an emergency hearing specifically to have a judge order Sausage Craft to halt the production and sale of certain types of sausages.
But the judge didn’t bite, ruling against an injunction at yesterday’s hearing.
Belmont, a retail butcher shop that has been around for five years, included an exhibit in the suit that shows the similarities in ingredients of 11 types of sausages that each company sells. Sausage Craft bills itself strictly as a wholesaler.
A glance at the sausage offerings on the two company’s websites reveals some similarities.
Sausage Craft offers its “Lamb with Rosemary and Garlic – All-natural domestic lamb meat flavored with rosemary, garlic and herbs. Like a roast leg of lamb in a convenient-to-cook package. A wonderful, savory treat when the weather’s cool.”
Belmont sells “Lamb with rosemary – a classic combo gone sausage. Lamb, rosemary and garlic – nothing could be better.”
Sausage Craft: “Veal Cippolata – A refined and elegant combination of veal, pistachios and truffles. Get out the fine china, this is the Rolls Royce of sausages.”
Belmont: “Veal Chipolata with Pistachios and Black Truffles – Coarsely ground veal sirloin, mixed with chunks of pistachio and black truffles and seasoned with salt, white pepper and nutmeg. A very subtle and delicate sausage.”
Belmont claims in its suit that it took “reasonable efforts” to maintain the secrecy of certain of its recipes, processed meat methodology, customer lists, vendor lists and pricing information. Those efforts included keeping its alleged trade secrets on a password-protected computer.
Belmont also says in the suit, “Most importantly, some trade secrets were so protected that they were not even written down or otherwise recorded by or known to anyone other than Belmont Butchery and its trusted agents.”
Mattera, as a former manager of Belmont, allegedly had access to those secrets, the suit says.
Belmont’s attorney, Darren Marshall Hart of Hart & Associates, said that Belmont believes it has a strong case and will continue to pursue a remedy to protect the business.
Belmont owner Tanya Cauthen did not return a call by press time.
Sausage Craft’s response to the suit is due next week.
Mattera said he and Hemp left Belmont in late September.
As for the suit, “I think the whole thing saddened us,” Mattera told BizSense yesterday. “We had hoped to have Belmont as a customer.”
Michael Schwartz is a BizSense editor. Please send news tips to [email protected].
A local start-up sausage maker says on its website, “You should know what’s in your sausage.”
But a butcher shop suing the young company claims to know exactly what is being stuffed in those sausages.
The Museum District’s Belmont Butchery’s claims that Sausage Craft and its owners, both former Belmont employees, copied recipes to help launch the company. (BizSense wrote about Sausage Craft in a story here.)
Belmont, which claims it is being harmed as a result, filed the suit against Sausage Craft and its founders, Chris Mattera and Brad Hemp, in Richmond Circuit Court on Dec. 6. The suit lists 12 counts, including trademark infringement, breach of fiduciary duty, injunctive relief and conspiracy to injure a business. Some counts ask for hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages and up to $1.8 million.
“Belmont Butchery guards its recipes and methodologies namely, trade secrets, in order to protect its business’s niche in the gourmet butcher shop market and give it a competitive advantage in business,” it says in the suit.
Devon Cushman, an attorney with Hirschler Fleischer representing Sausage Craft, said she is confident that her clients will be vindicated.
“What Belmont Butchery is alleging to be a trade secret isn’t a trade secret and aren’t subject to trade secret protection,” said Cushman. “My clients didn’t take these recipes. They are using new recipes they developed to create what they hoped to be a better product.”
There are specific sausages in question.
Indeed, Belmont requested an emergency hearing specifically to have a judge order Sausage Craft to halt the production and sale of certain types of sausages.
But the judge didn’t bite, ruling against an injunction at yesterday’s hearing.
Belmont, a retail butcher shop that has been around for five years, included an exhibit in the suit that shows the similarities in ingredients of 11 types of sausages that each company sells. Sausage Craft bills itself strictly as a wholesaler.
A glance at the sausage offerings on the two company’s websites reveals some similarities.
Sausage Craft offers its “Lamb with Rosemary and Garlic – All-natural domestic lamb meat flavored with rosemary, garlic and herbs. Like a roast leg of lamb in a convenient-to-cook package. A wonderful, savory treat when the weather’s cool.”
Belmont sells “Lamb with rosemary – a classic combo gone sausage. Lamb, rosemary and garlic – nothing could be better.”
Sausage Craft: “Veal Cippolata – A refined and elegant combination of veal, pistachios and truffles. Get out the fine china, this is the Rolls Royce of sausages.”
Belmont: “Veal Chipolata with Pistachios and Black Truffles – Coarsely ground veal sirloin, mixed with chunks of pistachio and black truffles and seasoned with salt, white pepper and nutmeg. A very subtle and delicate sausage.”
Belmont claims in its suit that it took “reasonable efforts” to maintain the secrecy of certain of its recipes, processed meat methodology, customer lists, vendor lists and pricing information. Those efforts included keeping its alleged trade secrets on a password-protected computer.
Belmont also says in the suit, “Most importantly, some trade secrets were so protected that they were not even written down or otherwise recorded by or known to anyone other than Belmont Butchery and its trusted agents.”
Mattera, as a former manager of Belmont, allegedly had access to those secrets, the suit says.
Belmont’s attorney, Darren Marshall Hart of Hart & Associates, said that Belmont believes it has a strong case and will continue to pursue a remedy to protect the business.
Belmont owner Tanya Cauthen did not return a call by press time.
Sausage Craft’s response to the suit is due next week.
Mattera said he and Hemp left Belmont in late September.
As for the suit, “I think the whole thing saddened us,” Mattera told BizSense yesterday. “We had hoped to have Belmont as a customer.”
Michael Schwartz is a BizSense editor. Please send news tips to [email protected].
Wow. This only proves the truth of the old saw that there are two things you don’t want to see happening: making sausage, and making legislation. It seems regrettable that the Sausage Dudes couldn’t find their way toward a start-up list that didn’t include any similarities to Belmont Butchery’s offerings. I’ve made sausage for decades, and the possible permutations contained in encased meats is kind of endless. Why they had to offer veal and lamb links that seem incredibly similar to Belmont’s shows a certain lack of creativity. Hope both sides can sort this out. There’s plenty of room in… Read more »
As a person who is leaving a company for another company in the same field, I don’t really have a problem with the fact that perhaps some proprietary knowledge got “re-used” though that is a slippery slope. I guess my main view is that specialty meat is lacking in this town and Belmont Butchery is wholly out of the price range for a lot of folks (even though I shop there). If someone else wants to do something similar or even the same, thats called competition and I like it. Finally, I think the name Sausage Craft is horrible. I’ve… Read more »
I mean I could see that the veal might be a copy, but a lamb/rosemary/garlic sausage is something you can get from at least 1000 butchers across the country. It is pretty hilarious that they believed Belmont would one day be a customer though, why on earth would they buy from a wholesaler? Their operation is clearly small enough to keep making their own sausage in-house. I think Belmont might just be throwing a fit about some new competition and it probably won’t prove worthwhile in the end. I agree with S. that their (Belmont’s) prices are exorbitant, I always… Read more »
Who really cares? Do you have a patented process for making sausages? Have you trademarked a name? Otherwise quit wasting my tax dollars on the courts!