Les Schirato, owner of the popular Vittoria Coffee brand, is suing a former sales manager, alleging he leaked confidential information to its competitor, Lavazza.

According to a report in the Australian Financial Review, Vittoria is suing sales manager Charles Du Bois, who resigned in 2015, for passing on information such as customer lists, return on investment modelling, marketing presentations and internal sales documents and a business opportunity for Lavazza with a previous client of Vittoria all while Du Bois was working for Vittoria.

It was alleged Du Bois is now working for a separate coffee machine supplier, Service Sphere, that Vittoria says is working now with Lavazza in expanding into Singapore.

Charles Du Bois, Vittoria and Lavazza are not commenting on the matter.

Lesson in protecting intellectual property for food manufacturers

According to the report, Schirato has once before gone to court in an intellectual property matter, spending AUD$1 million dollars in legal fees to win a trademark dispute.

Vittoria is also suing Nestec over a patent application.

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