Tervis' Attorneys Ask for Extended Deadline to Respond to Lawsuit

The legal team for Tervis Tumblers is asking for more time before it responds to the lawsuit from Trinity Graphic, which claims Tervis violated a nondisclosure agreement and stole the printer's trade secrets.

Trinity filed the lawsuit in federal court on Jan. 26, and Tervis was served on Feb. 2, according to the Tampa Bay Business Journal.

Trinity's legal team didn't oppose Tervis' tactic, but felt confident that regardless of the time Tervis takes to respond, it won't change the outcome.

"Corporate defendants routinely seek to delay proceedings," Jonathan Pollard, Trinity's attorney, said. "It's common practice. But in this case, no amount of delay will change the facts. The evidence of misappropriation and misconduct is overwhelming. We could try this case to a jury tomorrow and win."

Tervis' employees are requesting a new deadline of March 9, according to the story.

While the legal team didn't respond to the Tampa Bay Business Journal's request for comment, Tervis president Rogan Donnelly said last week that "media reports have told only one side of the story."

"The portrayal is in no way representative of how we have done business at Tervis, a proud family-owned and operated business, for more than 70 years," Donnelly said. "We hold ourselves to the highest ethical and legal standards, and are confident we will be vindicated once the facts are revealed."

Trinity maintains that, after informally agreeing to provide Tervis with custom inserts for its promotional tumblers, Tervis used a factory tour as a guise to steal trade secrets, giving them to Southern Graphics Inc., a competitor who offered to sell similar products for a cheaper price than Trinity.

"Southern could not find out how to print perfectly registered images or substantially reduce static electricity when printing on transparent substrates," the lawsuit said. "The result was a tumbler insert that was blurry and misaligned. Less than a month later—and despite the years in which no printing company had replaced the Trinity Wrap—Southern 'solved' its registration and static electricity issues. Southern began to print the Trinity Wrap for Tervis."

Trinity said that Tervis' alleged action has left it "teetering on the brink of bankruptcy."