Student laptop firm claiming it lost contracts with 20 schools to rivals drops injunction

An educational technology company has agreed to drop a temporary injunction it secured last week. Olive, also known as Upskill Online Ltd, had complained that it lost 20 schools and contracts valued at €1.6 million after former managers joined a rival company.

Last week, the High Court granted Olive wide-ranging orders. These prohibited Eduvolve and associated companies from marketing or providing educational services to any school that had worked with Olive. The order also restricted the disposal of approximately €15,000 worth of disputed IT equipment. Judge David Nolan issued the interim injunction, citing a prima-facie case of "commercial sabotage" based on the affidavit of Olive's chief executive, Brendan Kavanagh.

Kavanagh alleged that his former colleagues were unlawfully using Olive's confidential information to poach schools. The injunction was initially granted against three former Olive executives and three companies, including Eduvolve Ltd and PC Peripherals. The defendants, who had not had an opportunity to present their case before the initial orders were made, have since filed affidavits denying all allegations.

In court on Wednesday, the parties agreed that the interim injunction orders could be discharged. The defendants, including former Olive executives Ian Gaughran and Fintan Costello, denied any wrongdoing. Gaughran, who previously led Olive for Education, denied breaching a settlement agreement. Costello, now head of Microsoft practice at PC Peripherals, denied extracting information from Olive's systems, despite Kavanagh's accusations of hacking.

The court order required Costello to provide a full account of any information extracted from Olive's systems. Kavanagh had accused Gaughran of working with Costello and Jentetics at Eduvolve, violating a settlement that barred him from the education sector until August 2nd. Olive had previously sued Gaughran in January for allegedly soliciting customers for a new business, but a March settlement involved Olive paying Gaughran €61,713.