Theatre Company's Lawsuit Against Celebrity Cruises For Allegedly Stealing Trade Secrets Has Been Revived

A lawsuit against Celebrity Cruises, filed by Poet Theatricals Marine LLC, has been revived this week, Law 360 reports.

The suit alleges that Celebrity Cruises stole trade secrets for aerial acrobatics shows on cruise ships by terminating contracts.

A Florida appeals court revived the suit on Wednesday, after proving that Poet alleged the company possessed secret information, took reasonable steps to protect it, and showed that the information was misappropriated.

The trade secrets in question are proprietary digital tracking and management systems for the equipment used in the shows, as well as a training system that allowed Poet to hire non-acrobatic performers and train them in a short amount of time.

Celebrity terminated a contract with Poet, and then proceeded to use similar language to advertise to non-acrobatic actors. In addition, they used photos from Poet's shows in their marketing.

The company filed a suit in 2017 claiming that Celebrity had removed Poet's property and returned them in an unacceptable condition. Poet won a judgment of $37,147 on the breach of contract claims but had its trade secrets claims dismissed.

Read more on Law 360.