Blossom Energy Inc. (Head Office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Shimpei Hamamoto, Representative Director; the " Company") hereby announces that on April 30, 2024, it filed a lawsuit against Chikaoka Asahi ("Mr. Chikaoka"), a former director of the Company, Mitsuo Shimofuji ("Mr. Shimofuji"), a related party of a former contractor of the Company, and ZettaJoule G.K. ("ZettaJoule"), a company substantially established by Mr. Chikaoka and Mr. Shimofuji, with the Tokyo District Court. The details of the lawsuit is as follows.
[Summary of the Filed Lawsuit]
1．Summary of the Purport of the Request
A. Based on the Unfair Competition Prevention Act, the Company requests that Mr. Chikaoka, Mr. Shimofuji, and ZettaJoule dispose of documents containing trade secrets of the Company, suspend the use of such documents as well as the disclosure thereof to third parties.
B. Based on the Unfair Competition Prevention Act, the Company requests that Mr. Chikaoka and Mr. Shimofuji send letters of correction to potential customers of the Company as well as several venture capital companies, with regard to their provision of an explanation contrary to the facts that the Company will be withdrawing from its nuclear power business.
C. Based on the Companies Act and violation of contractual obligations, the Company requests that Mr. Chikaoka cease and desist from the nuclear power business.
D. Based on the Unfair Competition Prevention Act, the Company requests compensation for damages from Mr. Chikaoka, Mr. Shimofuji, and ZettaJoule.
2．Summary of the Cause of the Request (the Company's claim concerning the circumstances that led to the lawsuit)
(i) The Company understands that Mr. Chikaoka and Mr. Shimofuji took internal materials of the Company during their employment with the Company or immediately after the termination of their outsourcing contract with the Company. There are records of such internal materials having been extracted on the cloud server, and the Company regards these internal materials as the trade secret of the Company.
(ii) The Company has confirmed that, during the period including Mr. Chikaoka's tenure as a director of the Company, Mr. Chikaoka and Mr. Shimofuji provided an explanation contrary to the facts to potential customers of the Company and several venture capital companies that the Company will be withdrawing from the nuclear power business. The Company has not withdrawn from the nuclear power business, neither in the past or in the future, and has no further plans to do so.
The Company believes that acts including (i) and (ii) above not only constitute acts of unfair competition and torts, but also violate the duty of due care of a prudent manager, duty of loyalty to the Company, duty of confidentiality, and duty not to compete with regard to the Company, infringe the legitimate interests of the Company and damage its social credibility. As stated above, the Company is filing a lawsuit seeking the destruction of documents containing trade secrets, suspension of use and disclosure thereof to third parties, dispatch of letters of correction for providing an explanation contrary to the facts to potential customers of the Company and venture capitals, injunction of Mr. Chikaoka's nuclear power business, and compensation for damages caused to the Company as a result of such series of acts.
The disclosure of this lawsuit was made at this time because the Company received an inquiry based on the misunderstanding that it was planning to withdraw from the nuclear power business, and the Company considered it necessary to correct such misunderstanding.
3．Impact on the Company's Performance
This matter will have no impact on the future performance of the Company. The Company will announce the progress of this lawsuit as well as other other events that should be announced in the future with regard to this matter as appropriate.
End
Blossom Energy Inc.
Representative: Shimpei Hamamoto, Representative Director
Email: legal@blossom-energy.biz