Integrated Pharm., Inc. v. Chatterjee (In re Chatterjee)

594 B.R. 15
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, D. Massachusetts
DecidedNovember 28, 2018
DocketCase No. 16-10220-FJB; Adversary Proceeding No. 16-1033
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 594 B.R. 15 (Integrated Pharm., Inc. v. Chatterjee (In re Chatterjee)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, D. Massachusetts primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Integrated Pharm., Inc. v. Chatterjee (In re Chatterjee), 594 B.R. 15 (Mass. 2018).

Opinion

FINDINGS OF FACT

The stipulated facts are as follows, in paragraphs 1 through 60. As they are stipulated facts and not my findings, I replicate them essentially verbatim.

1. Chinmay and Nilu, along with their business partner Edward Furtado ("Furtado"), founded Advanced Process Technologies in or around March 1998.

2. Chinmay, Nilu, and Furtado also formed Integrated Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ("Integrated") in or around 2000, and Integrated acquired Advanced Process Technologies in 2000.

3. Integrated is a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Idaho, with a Massachusetts office located at 310 Authority Drive, Fitchburg, Worcester County, MA 01420. Integrated was a publicly traded company that was in the business of developing, manufacturing, marketing and distributing dietary supplements and nutritional substances.

4. Chinmay was the President and CEO of Integrated until he gave notice of his departure on July 19, 2007.

5. Nilu was the Vice President of Research and Development of Integrated until Integrated ceased operations on August 31, 2008.

6. The Chatterjees were both employees, directors, and investors of Integrated.

7. David Smith ("Smith") joined Integrated's board of directors ("the Board") in February 2004, after he personally invested $1,250,000 in Integrated. Smith later increased his investment to a total of $2,400,000. Smith had met with Chinmay just once prior to his initial investment. He chose to invest in Integrated based largely on his belief that Chinmay had the intelligence and drive to lead Integrated to success.

8. Sally Johnson-Chin ("Johnson-Chin") joined the Board in 2002 and invested *21$275,000 of her personal funds in Integrated.

9. Integrated raised approximately $6 million in investments by the end of 2004 and $9.7 million in investments over its lifespan.

10. The Chatterjees developed and intended to market a highly purified, water-soluble calcium powder (a calcium gluconate) to nutritionally fortify food and beverage products.

11. By early 2005, the Board had planned to sell the calcium powder in packets that could be added to food and beverage products without altering the taste.

12. Chinmay, Nilu, and Furtado held various patent rights related to the process of refining calcium gluconates and other gluconates in an entity called the NEC Partnership, including a patent for the water-soluble calcium powder. These patent rights were licensed to Integrated under a license Agreement (the "License Agreement"). The License Agreement defines two kinds of intellectual property subject to the license: "Licensor [NEC] hereby grants to Licensee [Integrated], subject to all the terms and conditions of this License Agreement, a right and license to make, have made, use, lease, promote, market, distribute, and sell the Licensed Products and Licensed Processes in the Field throughout the Territory. The right and license granted hereunder shall be exclusive as to any Patent Rights, and non-exclusive as to any Technical Information."

13. The NEC Partnership expressly retained the right to use any of the "Technical Information" relating to the patent process. It also required Integrated to pay a 3% royalty or $25,000 per quarter to NEC, whichever was greater. The quarterly minimum was only in effect if Integrated's sales were $5 million or greater.

14. By early 2005, the Board had planned to sell the calcium powder in packets that could be added to food and beverage products without altering the taste.

15. Chinmay proposed to the Board that Naples Marketing Systems, Inc. ("Naples") be Integrated's distributor and marketing agent, identifying Naples' contact with Demoulas Market Basket and indicating that Naples had come up with a name for the calcium powder ("Cal-Sap").2 [sic]3

16. Unbeknownst to the Board, Naples had already applied for the registered trademark for Cal-Sap in February 2005, before Chinmay had even introduced or suggested Naples to the Board.

17. Naples was founded as a Massachusetts limited liability company on July 13, 2004. Naples was created by Chinmay and one Constantine Miserlis ("Miserlis") to sell the same highly purified, water-soluble calcium powder that the Chatterjees had created and that Integrated was producing and poised to begin selling.

18. Naples was owned "at the time" by Miserlis.4 Miserlis had no previous marketing experience. Miserlis was an Integrated *22investor and also a long-time friend and colleague of Chinmay. Chinmay met Miserlis in 1992 while they both worked at Badger Engineers. Miserlis is a retired engineer and, by 2004, was in his mid-seventies.

19. Miserlis was also a paid consultant of Integrated, where he worked on such projects as improving Integrated's cooling tower design and bringing Integrated's wastewater treatment plant into compliance with city regulations.

20. Naples purchased the calcium powder from Integrated and packaged and distributed it as a supplement to be added to water or other drinks in the retail market. This was the exact same plan and delivery method that Integrated planned to use.

21. Smith had a private meeting with Chinmay about Naples in which he asked about Naples' experience marketing and selling products.5 Chinmay responded that Naples was a new company that had no other customers besides Integrated, but that it had a business connection to the supermarket chain Market Basket. Smith also asked Chinmay directly who the principal of Naples was, and Chinmay responded that he did not know.

22. Johnson-Chin discovered that invoices from Integrated to Naples were being sent to Miserlis at his home in Arlington, Massachusetts.

23. The Board held an emergency meeting on September 5, 2005, in order to confront Chinmay about the apparent conflict of interest with Naples and Miserlis. Chinmay apologized to the Board for not disclosing from the outset that Miserlis was running Naples.

24. Smith also questioned why Integrated had made a recent payment of approximately $200,000 to Naples for marketing services, and the $5,000 per month that was being paid to Miserlis for consulting. Chinmay said that he had transferred money from Integrated to Naples to help get them started.

25. Naples was the only company that Integrated ever paid to market and distribute Cal-Sap. Naples purchased from Integrated approximately $100,000 in calcium powder and other unrelated bulk products. Naples has never paid Integrated for an order of the calcium powder that is memorialized in an invoice sent on July 10, 2007.

26. Members of the Board expressed serious concerns to Chinmay about Naples' ability to market the calcium powder in light of the fact that it was a new company, and was being run by a seventy-five year old retired engineer. The Board was also displeased with the name of the product, and the packaging. None of the packaging had Integrated's name on it, and as such, did not develop a brand identification for the company. Chinmay insisted that Naples was the right company to market the calcium powder.

27. The members of the Board believed that the calcium powder and brand name Cal-Sap were Integrated's products. They succumbed to Chinmay's insistence that Integrated work with Naples.

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594 B.R. 15, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/integrated-pharm-inc-v-chatterjee-in-re-chatterjee-mab-2018.