WD Walks Away From Legal Fights, Looks to Tech
By Rob Bates | September 07, 2023
WD Lab Grown Diamonds is declining to participate in two legal battles—one involving the Plumb Club, the other regarding patent infringement—as the company increases its focus on advanced technology.
On Sept. 5, New York State Supreme Court Judge Suzanne J. Adams granted the Plumb Club’s motion for a default judgment against WD for $153,000. The Plumb Club had sued WD in June for breach of contract after the diamond company purportedly backed out of a commitment to exhibit in the Plumb Club pavilion at the JCK Las Vegas show. WD never filed a response to the suit.
Plumb Club lawyer Tracy Boak wrote in an Aug. 24 affidavit that after WD was noticed about the suit, she was contacted by “a self-described bankruptcy attorney on behalf of WD for the stated purpose of discussing settlement options.” The attorney later told her that WD couldn’t agree on a settlement and would not oppose the Plumb Club’s motion for default, Boak said.
In another legal case, WD and the Carnegie Institution of Washington have dropped their appeal of a federal court’s dismissal of their patent infringement claims against Fenix Diamonds.
Carnegie and WD filed suit in 2020 against Fenix, as well as five other companies, for allegedly violating its diamond growth patents. One claim was later dropped, and the other companies settled their suits. In 2021, U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff granted Fenix’s motion to dismiss the case on summary judgement.
Carnegie appealed the ruling, but last month it requested the appeal be dropped. The request acknowledges that Fenix can seek recovery of attorney fees.
Fenix managing director Naman Parikh said in a statement: “From the outset, Fenix advised Carnegie that we would litigate this case to the end. Fenix was looking forward to the Court of Appeals affirming Judge Rakoff’s detailed and crystal-clear opinion.” WD and its attorney did not respond to requests for comment.
Meanwhile, WD seems to be expanding the tech aspect of this business. On LinkedIn, Brittany Lewis, who has been with the company since 2020, changed her title from chief marketing officer to chief commercial officer. WD is “strategically expanding the footprint and operations of our advanced materials division,” Lewis wrote on her LinkedIn page. “Here, our work focuses on the breakthrough, high-impact diamond applications of tomorrow.”
In addition, WD, Euclid Beamlabs, and Advanced Diamond announced last week that they were forming a U.S.-based consortium to focus on diamond-based accelerator technology.
WD’s business name is M7D Corp.—which stands for “ ... "
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