In the last 36 hours, Texas Trophy Hunters Association has sued two other hunting advocacy organizations and obtained a temporary restraining order against them for allegedly misappropriating TTHA’s most valuable information: its membership list.
In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Bexar County District Court, TTHA claims that Washington, D.C.-based Safari Club International stole TTHA’s proprietary information while it was entertaining the idea of acquiring the San Antonio-based organization and provided it to TTHA’s competitor, Alabama-based Buckmasters.
“What happened here is no different than inviting someone to be a guest in your home, only to have them steal your property in the middle of the night,” said Reagan Marble, an associate in Jackson Walker’s San Antonio office who represents TTHA. “Safari Club International said it wanted to forge a business relationship. Instead, they just wanted to surreptitiously gain access to a competitor’s most valuable asset.”
Houston lawyer Brook Minx of Zabel Freeman, who represents Safari Club, did not immediately return a message seeking comment. Counsel information for Buckmasters was not immediately available, and a voicemail left with the company was not immediately returned.
Marble said the parties attended a TRO hearing before Bexar County District Judge Rosie Alvarado yesterday afternoon via Zoom. Because the judge was conducting hearings for multiple other cases on her docket before she could get to the hunting organizations’ suit, Marble said the lawyers spent a couple of hours in the court’s “virtual waiting room” on Zoom, during which Marble and Minx reached an agreement that Safari Club would abide by TTHA’s TRO request. He said no one for Buckmaster appeared for the hearing, so Judge Alvarado entered a TRO ex-parte against Buckmasters by the time the parties began their hearing.
The TRO bans Safari Club and Buckmasters from using TTHA’s customer list or contacting anyone on the list. When the TRO expires in two weeks, Marble said TTHA will seek a temporary injunction imposing the same restrictions until the case is resolved.
TTHA is also pursuing fraud, misappropriation of trade secrets and tortuous interference claims against the defendants.
According to the lawsuit, TTHA is considered to be the most prestigious deer hunting organization in Texas. The privately owned wildlife organization has been in business for more than 45 years and is dedicated to promoting the sport, science and heritage of hunting.
Though its website lists D.C. as its headquarters, the 50,000-member Safari Club has co-headquarters in Arizona, where it is also registered as a nonprofit.
According to the lawsuit, Safari Club and TTHA entered talks last year to explore an acquisition. At that time, the parties signed a confidentiality agreement that banned each organization from disclosing the other’s confidential information to third parties. In “a good faith effort” to move along the deal, TTHA said it sent its customer list to Safari Club in late January upon request. The deal has since fallen apart, Marble said.
In May, Safari Club and Buckmasters entered a joint venture agreement that gave Safari Club a direct pecuniary interest in Buckmasters and a seat on its board of directors. The lawsuit says Buckmasters and TTHA have “eerily similar” business models: Both drive revenues from magazine sales and consumer expos. Led by hunting celebrity Jack C. “Jackie” Bushman, Buckmasters also has a television show on the Outdoor Channel.
TTHA said it learned Safari Club and Buckmasters had used its confidential information last week after TTHA members began receiving a copy of the Buckmasters Whitetail Magazine in the mail.
TTHA alleges Buckmasters is no stranger to legal troubles. In 2017, the Alabama attorney general sued the company over allegations that it had signed up members without authorization. The 10-count Deceptive Trade Secret Practices Act lawsuit was later settled.
An avid whitetail deer hunter, Marble said he got involved in the case because TTHA has been a firm client on a number of matters. Marble said he has also been a member of TTHA since he was a small child.
Though Marble primarily represents clients in complex energy litigation and energy transactions, he’s also dedicated part of his practice over the past several years to representing landowners in their negotiations of hunting leases as well as assisting hunting organizations with their legal needs.
“I have a special appreciation for the mission of Texas Trophy Hunters Association,” Marble said. “The primary purpose of this case is to ensure that TTHA’s proprietary information is kept proprietary. Through the betrayal of Safari Club International, TTHA is going to pursue every remedy available to it and every damage under the law to ensure it doesn’t happen [again].”