Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. sued Hilton Hotels Corp. late Thursday, accusing its rival of using stolen confidential Starwood documents to develop a new luxury hotel chain.
The lawsuit, filed in federal district court in White Plains, N.Y., alleges that Ross Klein and Amar Lalvani, two former Starwood executives who joined Hilton last summer, stole more than 100,000 electronic and paper documents containing "Starwood's most competitively sensitive information."
"This is the clearest imaginable case of corporate espionage, theft of trade secrets, unfair competition and computer fraud," the complaint alleges.
In addition to monetary damages, Starwood is seeking a court order that could, in effect, force Hilton to cancel the rollout of the Denizen Hotels chain, which it unveiled last month. (more)
