By HELEN TUNNAH
America's Cup syndicate OneWorld Challenge has rejected suggestions it copied Team New Zealand designs for mast fittings.
Spokesman Bob Ratliffe said an internal email which talked about "essentially copying" designs had been taken out of context.
He said by itself the email looked embarrassing and it might have contained
a poor choice of words.
But it had to be considered with other documents which were evidence in a United States court case and could not be released.
"It's obvious somebody was trying to embarrass us," said Mr Ratliffe.
"It really is part of a broader question, which we've put before the arbitration panel - which is, if guys are all sitting around talking, can they talk about what they know?
"This all involves a fitting, so it's not the yacht design, or the sail design, or the mast design. This is just guys talking about what they would like to have in a certain kind of fitting."
He said the email had been urging OneWorld to be careful, and was not an indication any copying had taken place.
The email was sent by a rigging contractor for OneWorld and copied to key OneWorld staff, including former Team NZ designer Laurie Davidson, chief executive Gary Wright and sailing skipper Peter Gilmour.
It said a mast construction company, which worked for both Team New Zealand and OneWorld, had raised questions about the ownership of the designs of some fittings, and Team New Zealand was expected to "aggressively protect their intellectual property".
"The work we've done to date on our own fittings (locks and such) has been essentially copying Team NZ designs based on input from ex-Team NZ members."
OneWorld has for months been battling allegations that it has Team New Zealand design secrets, since it lodged a lawsuit against former employee Sean Reeves, an ex-Team New Zealand legal adviser.
It is suing Mr Reeves for breach of contract, alleging that he tried to pass on its design secrets, worth millions of dollars, to at least one other challenger.
Mr Reeves denied the claims, and in turn alleged OneWorld had Team New Zealand secrets.
