Healthcare IT and advanced visualization developer Merge Healthcare has sued orthopedic imaging informatics provider Medstrat, two Medstrat employees, and two Medstrat agents over alleged unfair competition, product disparagement, and tortious interference.
In a suit filed on November 14 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Merge alleges that the defendants have endeavored to convert legacy customers of Stryker Imaging to Medstrat by using a marketing plan that included "misrepresentations" about Merge not being a stable company as a result of hiring an investment bank to "explore strategic alternatives."
Merge announced in September that it had hired investment bank Allen & Company to evaluate a range of "strategic alternatives" that could include the sale of the company. Merge said it learned of Medstrat's activities when it discovered in a Medstrat advertising piece a PowerPoint slide that was part of an invitation-only presentation to Merge customers. The slide was labeled as "Merge Healthcare -- Confidential."
Merge acquired Stryker Imaging in July 2010. Merge said in the complaint that it is aware of nearly 40 Stryker accounts that have converted from Merge to Medstrat during the period when the defendants were publishing "in their advertising and other marketing communications false and misleading comments about Merge and its products, and Medstrat itself boasts of having converted 35 Merge/Stryker accounts over the past 18 months."
Merge is asking the court for an order and judgment in its favor, including an award of actual damages to be proved at trial, an award of punitive damages based on Medstrat's allegedly "willful and malicious conduct," an injunction against Medstrat that precludes the use in Medstrat's advertising or marketing communications of any false or misleading statement about Merge or its products, and any additional relief that the court deems just and proper under the circumstances.
The complaint can be found here. The suit also includes Medstrat employees Mark Bowman and William Carr and Medstrat agents Medical Imaging Resources and Ted Huss as defendants.
Representatives from Merge and Medstrat were not immediately available for comment.
