A US advertising company, Interspace Airport Advertising Ltd (Interspace), is suing local company Evoke International Ltd. (Evoke) for $600,000 after accusing the company of breaching a contract and stealing an advertising proposal for Bermuda International Airport for themselves.

Interspace claims that Evoke has wrongfully taken without compensation what was expressly represented to the Government of Bermuda as a joint proposal by Evoke and Interspace, and added that in doing so, Evoke has misrepresented itself to the Government of Bermuda. Interspace also alleges that Evoke has blatantly breached a contract requiring that it not compete with Interspace.

However, Evoke president Walton Brown told The Royal Gazette yesterday: “The Ministry of Transport is fully informed of all the developments regarding Bermuda Airport Advertisers Ltd. (BAAL) (a company set up by Evoke to run the airport advertising concession) and Interspace and they know Interspace is no longer involved with BAAL.

“We are the company that has made the submission and they fully support proceeding with BAAL for the airport advertising concession. Interspace, when they realised that BAAL was not going to be a shell company for themselves, indicated to me that they would make things very difficult and this is clearly part of their design in sending out this information. What they have presented to the media represents their side of the story and this is not a matter that I wish to have examined through the media but is one more appropriately addressed through the courts.”

Mr. Brown added: “Our focus is to continue to work with those companies and organisations who have committed to having themselves promoted through the airport advertising concessions and that is what we intend to continue to do.

“We are a small advertising agency in Bermuda. We are not a large entity as is Interspace, so we don't have the luxury of having legal counsel on staff to send out information which is only designed to cause interruption. We will continue to focus on our clients.”

Mr. Brown said Interspace's lawyer had threatened to get “very tough and nasty” but said yesterday: “I don't succumb to threats, so I told them to go ahead.”

In a statement to The Royal Gazette, Interspace said: “Interspace... warns that Evoke has no experience in the airport advertising field.

“The company further cautions that Evoke's stated relative lack of financial resources and the legal restrictions on using Interspace's designs and display products, combined with the rigorous financial deadline-sensitive obligations demanded of the Airport advertising display concessionaire in the pending Government contract will result in losses for the Government and for Bermuda advertisers.”

According to Interspace, the company was invited by Mr. Brown to submit a joint proposal to Transport Minister Dr. Ewart Brown for the advertising concession at the Bermuda International Airport.

Interspace says that joint proposal was to be in response to a formal request for proposals issued by the Ministry of Transport and says that Evoke accepted $8,000 from Interspace on condition that it: “exclusively work with Interspace” in regard to the advertising concession at the airport.

Marianne Lieberman, president and chief executive officer of Interspace said: “Walton Brown asked Interspace to prepare and submit the proposal to the Government for our joint effort.

“He said that Evoke did not have the financial or technical resources to handle the project on its own and needed an experienced and financially able partner. We laid out a financial sharing plan for Mr. Brown's company and he seemed pleased with it.

“We sent him a letter confirming our relationship and requiring that, for Interspace to go forward with his company, Evoke could not compete with Interspace for the Bermuda project. The letter included a check to cement our agreement which Evoke has long since cashed.”

Interspace says that in the Proposal to the Ministry of Transport, the two companies promised to form a joint business entity to operate the Airport concession business. Ms Lieberman said: “Interspace, exclusively, prepared the proposal in the name ‘Bermuda Airport Advertising', with our company to provide all of the display equipment, expertise, marketing and financial resources and Evoke International to provide local government relations, graphics services and local service and maintenance.

“Interspace's architects, designers and marketing professionals spent more than a month custom designing a state-of-the-art community showcase for Bermuda.”

Interspace said however that the joint company was never formed and that Evoke notified Interspace that it has executed the concession contract with the Government under the name of a corporation that it alone created and owns, called Bermuda Airport Advertising Ltd and added that Evoke has publicly announced that it intends to operate the airport advertising concession without Interspace.

“I could not believe that anyone in a country like Bermuda would so blatantly try to take someone else's business,” said Mark T. Lieberman, a Director of Interspace, regarding Evoke's announcement that it had seized the Government contract, adding “we were always completely up front with Mr. Brown about our partnership.

“Evoke's level of participation is even explained in written detail in the Proposal to the Government. Soon after ‘Bermuda Airport Advertising', the joint company that was to be created by Interspace and Evoke, was awarded the contract, Mr. Brown informed us that he wanted to restructure our agreement.”

Mr. Lieberman continued: “As Interspace's sales efforts became more and more successful, Mr. Brown came to us asking for a greater and greater share of Bermuda Airport Advertising's proceeds.

“We went to Bermuda with our legal team to renegotiate with Mr. Brown and his attorney Angela Berry. I even offered him more money, to which he finally agreed, and we all shook hands on the deal.”

But Mr. Lieberman added: “Mr. Brown continued asking for more and more of the proceeds until he announced that he would just seize the business.

“I don't really understand what Mr. Brown thinks he is doing. His conduct and misrepresentation is just so transparent. We always acted in good faith.”

The $600,000 being sought by Interspace includes $100,000 in lost costs and $500,000 in lost future income.