GE Medical Systems is embroiled in litigation with several former executives who left the company for PET firm CTI Molecular Imaging. GE is charging the executives with alleged theft of trade secrets and other proprietary information, according to court documents obtained by AuntMinnie.com.
In a complaint filed in November in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, Waukesha, WI-based GE sought injunctive relief against disclosure of trade secrets from former general manager of global functional imaging Thomas Hook and former national sales manager of PET products Joseph Sardano.
GE promoted Hook to his post as general manager of global functional imaging three weeks before he left the company to join CTI as a senior vice president in July, while Sardano resigned to become vice president of sales at CTI of Nashville, TN, in September, according to the filings.
In the complaint, GE claims that Hook purposely acquired confidential information from a GE strategic partner to assist CTI in competing against GE and the strategic partner. In addition, GE claims that Hook used confidential information within weeks of his departure to solicit Sardano to join CTI and contact GE's PET customers, and to solicit a senior manager of GE's PET business to leave GE.
GE is asking for the court to enjoin Hook and Sardano from holding positions at CTI that "will inevitably use or disclose GE's trade secrets," and enjoin them from violating employee confidentiality agreements as well as misappropriating or threatening to misappropriate GE's trade secrets.
The vendor is also asking for Hook and Sardano to account for any uses or disclosures of GE's trade secrets, and to be enjoined from soliciting GE's customers or employees using GE's secrets. GE is also requesting damages.
Both Hook and Sardano have refuted GE's allegations in responses to the complaint, according to Michael Lawless, CTI’s senior director of investor relations. CTI was not a party to this lawsuit, and declines to comment further on the case, Lawless said.
In another case filed in the civil court department of the District Court of Johnson County, Kansas, GE obtained a temporary restraining order on November 21 barring ex-GE PET salesman Lawrence Kessler from attending the 2002 RSNA meeting. GE had asked Kessler, who resides in Kansas, to resign November 16 after discovering he had planned to join CTI the following week, according to the litigation.
On December 5, GE asked for and obtained another temporary restraining order restraining Kessler and CTI from destroying GE confidential, proprietary, and trade-secret information allegedly provided to CTI by Kessler, according to court filings.
Because CTI is still in the midst of fact-finding, the firm declined to comment on that case, Lawless said.
"CTI is trying to determine what really happened," he said. "When CTI files a response, we'll explain what our understanding of the facts are."
GE spokesperson Patrick Jarvis said he was unable to comment on the cases as they are pending litigation.
By Erik L. RidleyAuntMinnie.com staff writer
December 16, 2002
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