Lovevery says employee created competitor with stolen code, ideas

Boise-based Lovevery filed a trade secrets lawsuit against a current employee and at least two other people, alleging they stole Lovevery's intellectual property to create a competitor.

The toy and game maker filed a lawsuit in Idaho's Federal District Court against Desmond T. Ademiluyi, Adeyinka O. Odelana, and Mayowa O. Oyediran, MB Agency and PlayGenius.com earlier this month.

The lawsuit alleges that Ademiluyi, a Front End Engineer for Lovevery, stole computer code and ideas and even named his fledgling product after one of the company's products.

The 47 page complaint, initially filed under seal early this month in Idaho's Federal District Court, was unsealed earlier this week.

"…Ademiluyi… in cooperation with the co-defendants starting a rival toy company called PlayGenius.com," the lawsuit alleges. "This company advertises that later this month (May 27, 2023), it will begin selling knock-offs of Lovevery's products with a company name taken from Lovevery and intellectual property belonging to Lovevery. Defendant Ademiluyi has further taken Lovevery confidential computer code and posted it publicly online. He did all of this while continuing to draw his salary and benefits – and continues to do this till today."

The complaint outlines 14 counts against Ademiluyi, Odelana, Oyediran, MB Agency, and PlayGenuis: breach of contract, declaratory judgment of ownership, trade secret misappropriation, computer fraud, and abuse act, trademark infringement, Idaho uniform trade secrets act, breach of fiduciary duty, intentional interference with contracts, unjust enrichment, breach of covenant of good faith and fair dealing, interference with prospective economic advantage, unfair methods, and practices under the Idaho consumer protection act and civil conspiracy.

Lovevery says they hired Ademiluyi in 2020 as a software developer. He worked remotely from his home in California and was on track to earn $160,000 in salary this year, plus benefits.

A few months after he started, in January of 2021, the company decided to label its "front end and back end e-commerce solutions" under the name PlayGenius.

A trademark filing shows Lovevery applied for a trademark on the name on January 6, 2021. The company said Ademiluyi was aware of the name and worked directly on the platform. But, the company left the PlayGenius.com domain name unregistered for nearly two years. It was previously in the control of domain squatter HugeDomains.com, which indicates it later sold the name.

Fast forward to late last year. The suit alleges Ademiluyi "created a copy of a portion of Lovevery's December 13, 2022, confidential code on his public GitHub."

GitHub is a popular cloud-based software development platform owned by Microsoft.

Lovevery pointed to scores of examples, including a folder with its custom fonts, Lovevery's name and logo in a code repository, and a JSON file with references to Lovevery.com.

BoiseDev independently verified that the Github account included many of the elements noted in the suit as of Wednesday. By Thursday, they had been removed.

In January, a new app went online in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. The app Blabla Kids: Toddler Games, which BoiseDev was able to download, shows a series of simple phone games for toddlers.

It's described as featuring "free Montessori educational kids games. Ideal for kids, toddlers, and babies!" The developer listed on Apple's App Store detail page is Desmond Ademiluyi, as viewed by BoiseDev Thursday. The app is no longer on Google Play.

Lovevery notes that a website owned by the MB Agency of Reims, France touts the Blabla Kids app. The company says it is "a group of innovative B2B & B2C startups" and develops web and mobile projects.

The Internet Archive Wayback Machine indicates the Blabla Kids splash page was online as of late January of this year.

In March, a user named "Yinkalana" left a review of the Blabla Kids app, and Lovevery alleges Odelana is the writer of the review.

The lawsuit said emails from Apple about the app went to a variety of email accounts they believe are associated with Ademiluyi — including his work lovevery.com address, with cc's to email addresses associated with Odelana and Oyediran.

Next, in February of this year, PlayGenius.com was finally snapped up, but not by Lovevery. Instead, the domain was set up at GoDaddy with a blind registration. The site was linked to a Shopify store.

The site is no longer online, but BoiseDev viewed several archived pages available in Google's cache, which match the allegations in the lawsuit.

After the domain registration, the suit alleges the defendants set up YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook pages for PlayGenius. The YouTube account was unavailable, but Instagram and Facebook accounts were still online Thursday.

The site, which promised a launch this Saturday, marketed itself as being "committed to providing the best learning experience for every child. Our apps offer a fun and interactive way for your child to learn and grow, combining education and entertainment."

Lovevery's suit alleges that PlayGenius copied the Boise company's play kit concept.

In 2018, Lovevery applied for a patent on a toy it calls the Magic Tissue Box. The toy, which is featured in its Senser Play Kit, is a series of linked fabric tissues inside a box – essentially a Kleenex box for helping babies learn how objects fit within each other.

The suit alleges PlayGenius copied the idea — and even used the same name on a kid's toy box.

"The 0-6 Months Educational Box is an incredible collection of toys designed to help your little one explore and discover the world around them. This box includes 10 captivating black and white cards, a magic tissue box with 5 fabric tissues…" the PlayGenius site said, according to the lawsuit. BoiseDev was not able to independently verify the language that appeared on the PlayGenius site.

The lawsuit includes screenshots of the 0-6 Month Educational Box as well as a similarly-styled photo of its Senser play kit, which appears on its website.

The photos show a similar set of toys, including a small beach ball-style toy, the tissue box, a set of cards, and others. The styling on the phrase "Educational Box" wraps around the lower left corner in the same way it does on the Lovevery kits.

The lawsuit said the PlayGenius.com kits were available for sale but did not indicate if any had been manufactured or shipped.

Lovevery's attorneys requested a temporary restraining order against the defendants, which Judge B. Lynn Winmill granted.

It ordered that the PlayGenius.com site be taken offline and said the Github account attributed to Ademiluyi be taken down. The website was offline on Wednesday morning, but the GitHub account is still online as of Thursday morning.

The order also allowed Lovevery attorneys and US Marshalls to enter Ademiluyi's San Clemente, CA, home to seize his Lovevery MacBook Pro.

The order also required the defendants not to "delete or hide" Lovevery or PlayGenius code.

The toymaker and tech company wants a jury trial in the case. They also want the defendants to stop using the PlayGenius name, the PlayGenius.com website, or the Blabla Kids app. They asked for an order to return "all Lovevery's property and trade secrets, and ultimately destroy all remaining copies of Lovevery's trade secrets."

Lovevery also hopes for an award of monetary damages, attorneys fees, and the like, as well as "other… relief."

Freddie Kemp, a spokesperson for Lovevery, said the company doesn't comment on litigation.

According to the court filing system, the defendants in the case do not yet have legal representation.

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