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Mining school sues rival for ‘inserting spy to steal content’

By Jesinta Burton

Fresh details have emerged in the highly charged court row between two rival mining safety training companies, one of which claims it uncovered a plot by its competitor to insert a secret agent and steal its course material.

Training Services Australia dragged competitor Saferight to the Supreme Court for damages in August with the help of a former Saferight employee, who blew the whistle on the alleged scheme.

TSA dragged Saferight to court demanding damages after a former employee blew the whistle on the alleged copyright infringement scheme.

TSA dragged Saferight to court demanding damages after a former employee blew the whistle on the alleged copyright infringement scheme.Credit: IStock (Composite Image).

Court documents filed in the case disclose that an employee recruited by Saferight between July and August 2023 was instructed to enrol in TSA’s online course.

The writ lodged on August 21 claims the former employee obtained more than 400 screenshots of TSA’s bespoke program without its knowledge and in breach of its copyright.

TSA claims Saferight took copies of the course, used to help those in the mining sector pass a compulsory law examination administered by the state’s Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety, to create one of its own.

Since August, TSA has been pursuing damages, an injunction requiring Saferight to hand back the material it gathered from TSA’s exam prep course and an order preventing it from ever being used.

Within 48 hours of taking the claim to the court, TSA’s lawyers secured a rare order allowing the company to enter two of Saferight’s business locations and seize Atkinson’s laptop.

That device is now in the hands of the court. Saferight is defending the claim.

Though the quantum of the claim is not yet known, the fact it was lodged in the Supreme Court indicates the damages sought are likely to exceed $750,000.

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The parties gathered behind closed doors for peace talks at the court on Tuesday, but WAtoday can reveal attempts to resolve the row were unsuccessful, and the matter looks set to proceed to trial.

TSA’s lawyer, Bennett principal David Stewart, said the courts were exceptionally careful about allowing people’s privacy to be impeded, but the flagrancy of the alleged infringement was a determining factor in the matter.

Stewart said the claim, if successful, could lead to orders for punitive damages to deter the infringer and to set an example.

The employee-turned-whistleblower has now been revealed as Jason Atkinson, who is understood to be a former police officer.

TSA claim Atkinson had been instructed by Saferight’s managing director Gordon “Mack” McCormack to enrol in and gather information on TSA’s online course.

And that’s precisely what Atkinson did.

TSA’s director Matthew Trott said Atkinson later had a “crisis of conscience” and told the company about the alleged incident, which he described as “deeply concerning”.

“We could not allow a rival business to gain a competitive advantage over us by such underhanded means,” he said.

“We’re thankful that Mr Atkinson had a crisis of conscience and told us, but this blatant fraudulence should never have happened in the first place.”

That crisis of conscience has now seen him formally dragged into the row as a party to the dispute.

Saferight, which was founded in 1990, claims to be the state’s leading mining, construction, maritime and hospitality training provider — and it’s trained more than 50,000 students across 80 courses.

According to its website, its training is accepted by a host of major companies, including Rio Tinto, Chevron, WesTrac, BHP, Monadelphous, the Water Corporation, UGL and MACA.

Saferight could not be reached for comment.

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Original URL: https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/mining-school-sues-rival-for-inserting-spy-to-steal-content-20240312-p5fbsp.html