Sekaicon Files Response, Counterclaim to Ohayocon Lawsuit
Last month we reported on Ohayocon‘s organizers CESI filing a lawsuit against Sekaicon‘s organizers Sekai Guild (though it should be noted that not all named defendants are a part of that convention’s organizing committee). You can read that original filing here, but the long and short of it is that CESI is alleging Sekai Guild’s members stole trade secrets when they left Ohayocon.
The latest news is that the defendants have filed an answer and counterclaim. As expected Sekaicon’s organizers deny CESI’s claims, but it also alleges that CESI’s lawsuit has hurt the potential attendance of the upcoming inaugural event and is seeking damages.
Because we don’t have time to reach out to the parties while preparing this piece, I don’t want to editorialize as much as I normally would in this kind of situation. That said, I do think Sekai Guild’s filing makes some very valid points. As mentioned in the previous piece I wrote, the majority of the “trade secrets” listed in CESI’s filing appear to be common, public convention items and knowledge (like badge ribbons). The real question, in the end, will come down to whether or not things like the former Ohayocon convention discord, created by volunteers now aligned with Sekai Guild, will be considered Ohayocon’s property. The irony is that CESI’s insistence that the defendants were only “volunteers” may actually weaken their own claim there (as it’s debatable whether or not a volunteer’s creation would be considered work product).
I’m not a lawyer, so I’ll leave that question up to those who’d know better than me.
Sekaicon, of course, is largely organized by now former members of Ohayocon’s “senior leadership.” Those staff members went on “strike” in late 2023 in response to a number of actions by Ohayocon’s owners CESI, including the removal of defendant Cody Markum from his position as Ohayocon Con Chair. We followed up a couple of times, but in the end the two sides could not come to an agreement — prompting some of the striking members to leave and form their own convention.
It should be mentioned that this is not the first time a number of Ohayocon staffers left the organization to set out on their own. Columbus, Ohio’s Matsuricon was also founded by former Ohayocon staffers in the 2000s who left the organization. This is not an uncommon tale and is how many cons actually begin. It’s usually just not this dramatic nor public.
We’ll continue to monitor this story as it develops.
It should be noted that defendant Matt Geisen is not included in the Sekaicon response as a separate filing asking for an extension implies he may be seeking a dismissal on jurisdictional grounds. We never received a response to our initial inquiries for comment to our original story beyond Ohayocon asking to clarify our email address. If we do receive comment we will update the story.
