FARGO - The University of North Dakota and a group of companies are in court over trade secrets.

Lawsuits filed in Fargo and in California involve a research project that brought together UND's Energy and Environmental Research Center and three James Hardie companies.

Daniel Crothers, a Fargo attorney representing the James Hardie companies, said his clients have declined to comment, citing the "complexity of the case."

The international group of James Hardie companies, makers of building products for the construction industry, approached the EERC for help in December 2000, to develop new building materials from the byproducts of coal ash, court records say.

Australia-based James Hardie Research PTY LTD., and James Hardie Building Products of Mission Viejo, Calif., provided the EERC with furnace equipment for the research.

EERC researchers used the equipment to produce censopheres from burning coal, the UND lawsuit says. Cenospheres are spherical particles produced from coal ash that can be used for such things as improving the strength-to-weight ratio of building products, the lawsuit says.

The "James Hardie Project" was governed by a contract that prohibited the EERC and the James Hardie companies from divulging any discoveries, the lawsuit says.

UND claims the James Hardie companies violated the agreement by giving an affiliated company, CGC Products LLC, trade secrets dealing with the EERC's cenosphere research. The James Hardie companies are now working with CGC to commercially produce cenospheres, the lawsuit says.

UND also claims that James Hardie Building Products, James Hardie Research and James Hardie International Financial of Amsterdam secretly applied for patents on intellectual property belonging, in part, to the university.

Last May, the James Hardie companies sued UND, seeking the return of the furnace equipment that was part of the research project, court records say. That lawsuit is in federal court in Riverside, Calif. UND contends the research contract stipulates that the university is to keep the equipment, valued at more than $75,000.

UND's lawsuit, in federal court in Fargo, says that in applying for patents, the Hardie companies included charts created by EERC researchers but removed the center's name from the charts before submitting them.

"This is an example of the blatant misappropriation of the EERC's trade secrets," the lawsuit says.

Also named as defendants in the lawsuit are CGC Products of California, and Knobbe, Martens, Oslon and Bear LLP, an Irvine, Calif., law firm representing the James Hardie companies in their patent applications.

UND attorney Julie Evans declined to comment on the lawsuit, calling it a "sensitive issue."

UND is seeking a permanent injunction that would prohibit the companies from divulging trade secrets. The university also is seeking unspecified damages.