Charter Urges Denial of Former Executive’s Motion to Dismiss Trade Secrets Suit

The U.S. District Court for Connecticut in New Haven should deny the Sept. 29 motion of Bridger Mahlum, Charter Communications’ former director-state government affairs, to dismiss Charter’s trade secrets complaint for lack of personal jurisdiction and, in the alternative, his motion to transfer under binding U.S. Supreme Court, 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals and Connecticut precedent (see 2310020024), said Charter’s opposition Friday (docket 3:23-cv-01106). Charter seeks to prevent Mahlum from spilling Charter’s broadband, equity, access and deployment program trade secrets to BroadbandMT, a direct competitor. Mahlum’s arguments are “yet another meritless attempt” to delay the court’s decision on Charter’s motion for preliminary injunctive relief, said Charter’s opposition. Declining to exercise jurisdiction over Mahlum “would simply delay the resolution of this matter and provide him with an avenue to circumvent his obligations to Charter,” it said. Mahlum has “no valid response to Charter’s assertion of personal jurisdiction,” and so his motion to dismiss “misstates black letter law under binding Connecticut Supreme Court and U.S. Supreme Court precedent,” it said. His motion “misconstrues cases” that support the court’s jurisdiction over him, it said. It also attempts to distract the court with “irrelevant facts,” it said. The court should reject Mahlum’s “attempted misdirection,” deny his motion to dismiss, hold that it has personal jurisdiction over Mahlum, and grant Charter’s request for a preliminary injunction, it said.