Truth or Dare? Or Is It Liar, Liar Pants on Fire

Good day Spine Nation, it's time to play truth or dare. What do Trent Northcutt, Brent Johnston, Thomas Gardner, Robert Smart, Kyle Webb, Lance Cochran, Kiki Steinberg and Lazlo Garamszegi have in common?  As Richard Dawson use to say, "the answer is......................"  It seems that once again the Usual Suspects have enacted a drama that will either play out in a court of law, or with a mediator, regardless, could this be a game of liar, liar, pants on fire?


On March 12^th, 2012 a complaint was served in the Superior Court for the State of California Orange County, Santa Ana on behalf of Trent Northcutt and Brent Johnson against Phygen, LLC, Allez Spine, LLC, Thomas Gardner, Robert Smart and 50 Does. That's like Does as in John and Jane Doe of the famous Doe family. The complaint alleges that in or about 2008, Northcutt and Johnston designed a Dynamic Interspinous Implant Design applying for a provisional patent on the ISP product and design including their proprietary dynamic ratcheting locking system., never before seen or used in the Spine Industry, as opposed to the standard grommet nut locking system.

For those of you that do not know the industry, prior to sharing the ISP design under the protection of IP Agreements, the Plaintiffs had consulted for Phygen and Allez Spine. That could have been their first mistake. It was during this period that Northcutt and Johnston told Gardner, the CEO of shell companies, Phygen, aka Physician Generated, Allez Spine and Athernova about their ISP idea.  Gardner assured (wink, wink) the Plaintiffs that he would be interested in the ISP product based on their experience and success at LANX No Thanx, the US market leader for ISP fusions.

On May 28^th, 2009 the parties signed the IP/ISP protection agreement, specifically, a three year Non-Circumvent and Non-Disclosure Agreement. The documents were scanned and e-mailed to all parties.  The plaintiffs signed on behalf of Apogee Dynamics and Mssr. Lazlo Garamszegi (love that name, Could it be Lazlo from Casablanca).  Under the IS/ISP Agreement the other Defendants were shown the Plaintiffs design. At the time the Plaintiffs presented their design Gardner, Garmszegi and Dr. John Brown indicated that they were "impressed and expressed an interest to acquire or develop the product." After a few months the product was not acquired or developed.  Mssr. Northcutt went on to work for SpineArt as a VP in North America, and Johnston stayed on with Phygen/Allez (gotta love these shell companies) until his departure in early 2011.

Here’s where the plot thickens.  Unknown to the Plaintiffs at the time, allegedly Gardner and Smart directed the employees to create a “secret” ISP folder and began developing the stolen IP design.  In or about February of 2012, metal prototypes were received by the Defendants, who began showing the metal prototypes in San Francisco during the AAOS trade show.  The question TSB must ask is, why didn’t Mr. Gardner submit the product to the Spine Technology Awards, bet Robin Young would have given Phygen a prize for the effort alone, if any of this is true.  Could have named the award something like, well let's just call it the Paul Award for old time sakes.

On February 8, 2012 as the lights went down on the city, and the sun shined on the bay, Mssr. Gardner invited Northcutt to attend the Allez/Phygen cadaver lab.  Awaiting were some former oldies but goodies from Blackstone Medical, Kyle Webb,  Lance “I took it on the chin" Cochran, Kiki “I gotta mouth” Steinberg, and Lazlo. The  Our Gang of the Spine Industry offered Northcutt some wine and cheese , how gauche, but he declined.  As the Plaintiff toured the lab much to his surprise he noticed a familiar ISP implant that was attached to the cadaver.  Can one image that even the dead are being dragged into this suit? Yet, although the shape of the implant was different , it had the exact locking mechanism. Obviously at this point Northcutt realized that something did not smell right.  Words were exchange, and Gardner swiftly escorted Northcutt out the front door.  Here’s where this complaint gets funny, Gardner and Smart are attempting to sell Allez/Phygen to a financial suitor for an estimated $15-25 million.  You know what PT Barnum once said……  The Plaintiffs believe that the stolen device could exceed $25 million in the open market.  So what do our readers think, is this truly a game of truth of dare?  Or, is this a game of he says, she says.  Whatever the consensus, once again, it seems like old habits die hard in the Spine Industry.   You know what they say,


Got those highway blues can't you hear my motor running
Flyin' down the road with my foot on the floor
All the way in town they can hear me comin'
Fords about to drop she won't do no more  
And I smell my motor burnin' 
Underneath the hood is smoke
Can't stop and I can't stop got to keep movin' or I'll lose my mind