Zest Labs CEO On Fighting Walmart With $2 Billion Lawsuit
*By Amanda Weston*
The CEO of the Silicon Valley company suing Walmart for $2 billion for allegedly stealing its fresh-food technology said he's standing up for his team's creation and his investors.
Zest Labs chief Peter Mehring said the retail behemoth's Eden system is eerily similar to his firm's Zest Fresh technology.
"We have to stand up for the intellectual property we've created and the value that our investors invested in and our customers paid for," Mehring said in an interview Friday with Cheddar.
Zest Labs announced its lawsuit Wednesday after years of working with Walmart on a way to monitor fresh produce and optimize shipping to avoid waste. The companies began collaborating in 2015, but Walmart [reportedly lost interest](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-walmart-zestlabs-lawsuit/lawsuit-claims-walmart-stole-technology-to-keep-produce-fresh-idUSKBN1KM6D7) last November.
In March 2018, [Walmart said](https://blog.walmart.com/innovation/20180301/eden-the-tech-thats-bringing-fresher-groceries-to-you) its own associates created the original Eden system in just six months. The system serves as a "digital library of food standards," and created a "freshness algorithm that prioritizes the flow of perishable goods worldwide."
Zest Labs and its parent company, Ecoark Holdings, Inc., accuse Walmart of violating trade secret laws, breach of contract, and fraud.
"We taught them a lot during the three years that we worked with them, and a lot of the approach is new," said Mehring. "We take a proactive approach to avoiding food waste in the supply chain that's really a breakthrough for the industry, and no one else has come through with this, and then to see someone suddenly announce that they're doing something similar, after having worked with us for three years is what concerned us, and what really led to this claim that we filed."
Randy Hargrove, a Walmart spokesman, told [Reuters](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-walmart-zestlabs-lawsuit/lawsuit-claims-walmart-stole-technology-to-keep-produce-fresh-idUSKBN1KM6D7), “we respect the intellectual property rights of others" and said the company will respond to the allegations in the lawsuit in court.
Mehring said he has not heard from Walmart.
"We want to kind of move the industry," said Mehring. "Whatever moves that forward the fastest is really our goal. If settlement requires that, that's an open opportunity."
For more on this story, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/fresh-food-company-sues-walmart).
On this episode of Cheddar Innovates: CEO of HereAfter AI discusses how artificial intelligence can be used to preserve family history and stories, and allow you to 'talk' to loved ones that have passed; Creator of the board game 'Travel Explore Discover' explains how she came up with the idea for this informative and educational board game, and how she's using the proceeds to give back to her community; Cheddar gets a look at Curiosity Stream's 'The Humboldt Current.'
According to the Federal Reserve, the investment gap between Black and white Americans has remained substantial, with only 34 percent of Black households joining in on the historic rise in the markets. Stacey Tisdale, the first Black woman to have reported from the NYSE and the CEO and president of Mind Money Media Inc., said that the data might not be as disheartening as it seems. "I think that number is very deceiving. That Federal Reserve study is actually from 2019, and it's very important that we all look beneath that number and look beneath the surface because there is nothing short of an investing revolution going on in the Black community," Tisdale said.
James Vlahos, Co-Founder and CEO of HereAfter AI, joins Cheddar Innovates to discuss how artificial intelligence can be used to preserve family history and stories, and allow you to 'talk' to loved ones that have passed.
Ava Rathenberg, Creator of the board game 'Travel Explore Discover,' joins Cheddar Innovates to discuss how she came up with the idea for this informative and educational board game, and how she's using the proceeds to give back to her community.
An award-winning performance by the LSU Tiger Girls dance team is going viral on TikTok, but like many other viral tiktoks, this one had a larger story to tell. The story goes back to 2021 when for the first time in 22 years, the LSU dance team was informed it could not compete at Universal Dance Association Nationals. The team made their anticipated return to UDA Nationals this year with a performance that delivered a strong and clear message to their university. The LSU Tiger Girls walked away from the competition with their first national championship title in 12 years, redemption against the university that held them back, and of course- millions of new fans and friends on TikTok.
Solid-state battery maker Factorial Energy recently raised $200 million in a Series D round led by Mercedes-Benz and Stellantis. Factorial says the funding will be used to accelerate commercial production and deployment of its solid-state battery technology, which the company says is safer, and offers up to 50% more driving range than current lithium-ion technology. Factorial also has joint development agreements (announced in late 2021) with Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis, and Hyundai, three of the top 10 global automotive manufacturers, to commercialize its batteries. Factorial CEO Siyu Huang joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Former Dolphins coach Brian Flores filed a lawsuit against the NFL over racial discrimination, exposing a long-running problem the NFL has had with diversity in its top coaching and management positions. Eric Mitchell, the president and CEO of public relations and communications company LifeFlip Media, joined Cheddar News to delve into the scandal rocking the pro football world just before the Super Bowl. "There is a problem. If you look at who owns teams in the NFL, it's right, it's a good old boys club, it's a bunch of old white guys," he said. "So, it's exposing something that's been around for ages and now that we're sitting in 2022 has come up."
This April, Madison Square Garden will be hosting the first-ever women's boxing match to headline at the arena in its 140 years of history in boxing. Undisputed lightweight champion, Katie Taylor, and seven-division champion, Amanda Serrano, will go head-to-head for a career-high guaranteed seven-figure purse for both of them. The pair joined Cheddar News to talk about the upcoming "fight of their lives." "I mean, this is the first step I believe," said Serrano. "Unheard of, two women headlining the Garden, we get in the biggest paydays of our career, I hope it continues to break down barriers."
Kendra Bracken-Ferguson, founder of BrainTrust Founders Studio joins Cheddar News to talk about the importance of supporting Black beauty and wellness founders.
