CELARIX, DESCARTES SETTLE LITIGATION

CELARIX, DESCARTES SETTLE LITIGATION    Celarix Inc., a provider of supply chain management solutions, and Descartes Systems Group, a provider of technology solutions, said they have reach a settlement in a pending legal dispute between them.
   Descartes had sued Celarix in November, 2000, in the superior court of Massachusetts, charging in part that certain employees who had left Descartes to work at Celarix had allegedly misappropriated trade secrets and allegedly breached confidentiality pacts.
   “In order to avoid costly and protracted litigation, and the unnecessary diversion of management, Celarix agreed to pay part of Descartes’ legal fees and assume certain equitable remedies without admission of liability or wrongdoing on the part of the company or any of the individual defendants,” Celarix said in a statement.
   'We take the protection of our intellectual property and our contractual relations seriously, and where necessary, we will….protect ourselves against what we believe to be wrongful conduct. We have done that in this instance, and are satisfied with the result,” said Peter Schwartz, chairman and co-chief executive officer of Descartes Systems Group.
   Jim Daniell, chief executive officer of Celarix, said that “we take any claims against the company seriously. We, however, do not routinely use litigation to settle business disputes.”
   “We … have entered into a permanent injunction to reaffirm the non-disclosure and non-solicitation provisions of the Descartes employee agreement,” Daniell explained.
   Celarix is based in Cambridge, Mass. Descartes Systems Group is based in Waterloo, Ontario.