spacetoday.net: Lockheed sues Boeing over EELV contracts

Posted: Tue, Jun 10, 2003, 10:54 PM ET (0254 GMT)

Lockheed Martin has filed a federal lawsuit against Boeing over alleged misuse of proprietary documents during bidding for Air Force launch contracts. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in federal court in Orlando, claims that Boeing employees obtained proprietary Lockheed Martin documents regarding that company's plan to bid for contracts for the Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program. Boeing then used that information to prepare its own EELV bid, according to the suit. Lockheed is asking for unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. News of the potential misuse of Lockheed documents by McDonell Douglas (which became part of Boeing) employees was first reported last month by the Wall Street Journal, which reported at the time that the Justice Department and the military were investigating the claims. Boeing had no official comment on the lawsuit, but the company took out full-page ads in several major newspapers on Monday stating that the actions of a few employees should not tarnish the integrity of the entire company.