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Jet Engine Dispute: PBS Alleges Know-How Theft and Reverse Engineering by CSG Unit

Czech aircraft engine maker PBS has formally accused former employees who joined Michal Strnad’s CSG group of taking sensitive technical documentation and business data into a strategically critical sector: small jet engines used in unmanned aerial systems and defense platforms. In pre-litigation notices, PBS claims that CSG’s subsidiary AviaNera Technologies is developing projects that closely mirror PBS technology, raising suspicions of trade secret violations and reverse engineering.
According to the filings, former PBS executives allegedly approached suppliers and customers seeking components nearly identical to those used in PBS’s TJ150 engine—reportedly even using internal PBS documentation formats. The company says the overlap between requested parts and its proprietary engine components was “almost 100%,” suggesting potential misuse of protected know-how in an area widely viewed as a technological bottleneck in modern defense systems.

Source: https://www.seznamzpravy.cz/clanek/ekonomika-firmy-spor-zbrojaru-pbs-vini-exzamestnance-z-vynaseni-informaci-strnadove-csg-295878

A rival company accuses Strnad’s CSG of stealing know-how

Manager Pavel Čechal became CEO of PBS Group at the beginning of 2023. He left the company, which mainly manufactures jet engines and auxiliary power units for aircraft and helicopters, in July 2025.

At the end of August, he joined the board of directors of AviaNera Technologies, part of Michal Strnad’s CSG group, and in September he became its executive director. Along with Čechal, four other former PBS Group employees moved to CSG.

AviaNera Technologies (ANT), like PBS Group, is involved in the development and manufacture of small jet engines. Through it, CSG acquired the Serbian developer of these engines, MUST Technologies, in November last year.

“We want to acquire cutting-edge technology and know-how in the field of propulsion units, which are a key component and often a bottleneck in the development and production of modern unmanned vehicles,” said CSG owner Michal Strnad.

However, PBS Group believes that it was their former employees who brought the know-how to Strnad’s group. “The available information indicates that you have apparently provided ANT, or rather the CSG group, with the above-described protected information related to products that PBS has been designing, manufacturing, and offering to its customers for a long time,” states the pre-litigation notice addressed by PBS Group to its former employees, which the editorial staff had the opportunity to read.

According to the document, Čechal contacted the supplier and its former and current customers with requests for parts that correspond to those used by PBS Group in the production of the TJ150 engine installed in high-speed unmanned aircraft and defense systems.

“Such inquiries were even made using the original dial created at PBS (which is only available to PBS employees). The match between the parts requested by ANT and the PBS engine parts is almost 100%,” the letter states.

According to the company, former PBS employees may have violated their employment contracts and confidentiality agreements and committed industrial rights and trade secret violations.

“Through our law firm, we have sent letters to former employees warning them to avoid behavior that could be illegal in view of their previous employment obligations,” says Monika Hrubalová, marketing director of PBS Group.

The letters, drafted by the Prague law firm Pokorný, Wagner & Partners, were sent by PBS Group in November. The company did not respond to questions about the recipients’ reactions and any further steps taken against them.

“The circumstances require us to act. We must demonstrate to our customers and our employees that we protect our technology, our know-how, and our trade secrets. We do not wish to comment further on this sensitive matter,” says Hrubalová.

CSG: the allegations are unfounded

According to CSG group spokesman Andrej Čírtek, pre-litigation notices were sent not only to several former PBS Group employees who now work for Strand’s company, but also to the CSG group itself. CSG has rejected the allegations. “The allegations of industrial rights violations or misuse of trade secrets are unfounded, and we will respond accordingly,” wrote Čírtek.

According to Čírtek, AviaNera currently employs more than twenty experts from various companies and countries, and only a few individuals in this team have previous professional experience with PBS Group.

“Avia Nera develops its own technical solutions and designs, which we consider to be technologically advanced and unique in this segment. It also recently communicated transparently how it acquired its know-how in the field of UAS power units (at this point, we refer to the communication of the acquisition of MUST Solutions). The CSG Group is convinced that all its activities are conducted in accordance with applicable laws and fair business practices,” said the spokesperson.

“We consider the pre-trial summons, as well as their unofficial disclosure to the media, to be a deliberate and unethical attempt to make life difficult for former employees and discourage potential candidates interested in a career change. We regret the way in which these people are being publicly or privately slandered without evidence,” added Čírtek, saying that competition should be “conducted fairly through the quality of products and services for customers, not through lawyers who submit unsubstantiated pre-trial summonses to the media.”

Tense relations

Relations between CSG and PBS Group, owned by Czech-American businessman William Didden, have been tense for several years. Strnad wanted to buy PBS Group in 2024, which the owner of the engineering group refused.

Some media outlets then speculated about who the real owner of PBS Group was, to which the company responded by issuing an unusual press release informing the public about CSG’s offer. PBS Group director Petr Kádner commented on the matter a few months later in an interview with SZ Byznys.

“We told the company that we didn’t know where this was all heading, and if they wanted something, they should put it in writing. They did so, we presented it to the owner, and we also asked some of our customers. They indicated that it would not be a good idea and that some business relationships would not be possible to develop as before. So we politely declined the offer,” Kádner said last May about the takeover speculation.

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