BH Media Group, owner of the Roanoke Times, is
suing a Virginia Tech football reporter over the rights to a Twitter account.
The account, @AndyBitterVT, has more than 27,000 followers, the paper reports.
By using the account at The Athletic, an online sports publication, Andy Bitter has “committed a host of violations of state and federal law including theft of trade secrets and unfair competition,” the suit says, according to the paper. The Athletic is not named as a defendant in the suit.
Kyle Tucker opened the Twitter account in 2010 while covering sports for the Virginian-Pilot, according to the suit. Bitter was brought on in 2011 as a football reporter for the Pilot and The Roanoke Times after Tucker departed. The company gave Bitter access to the Twitter account, the suit said.
In 2013, BH Media purchased The Roanoke Times and the Twitter account became BH property, the suit claims.
On June 22, when Bitter announced that he was departing from the Roanoke Time, management asked him to turn over info on the Twitter account. He refused, the suit claims.
Bitter’s obligation to give up the account when he left the paper was spelled out in a company handbook that he acknowledged reading in 2015, the suit claims.
Bitter declined to comment on the suit, the paper reported.
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