Abbott gets restraining order against ex-VP in COVID-19 trade secrets dispute
Biopharmaceutical company, Abbott Laboratories, has successfully obtained a restraining order against its former vice-president of global marketing, whom it has accused of stealing trade secrets relating to COVID-19 products.
On Tuesday, November 3, Virginia Kendall, a US district judge for the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, granted the two-week restraining order against Abbott’s former employee, Jerome Clavel.
The order will temporarily prevent Clavel, who joined Abbott in May 2019, from starting work at his former employer’s competitor, Bio-Rad Laboratories. According to Abbott, Clavel downloaded company materials “onto at least five USB hard drives”, and it has also accused him of accessing confidential information and market predictions and forwarding it to a personal email address.
This information included details about a potential COVID-19 test, said the company in its complaint filed on October 30.
In the filing, Abbott also claimed that Clavel resigned on October 15, telling his boss and a human resources representative that he was doing so for his health and well-being and that he had not “signed on with any job at this point”.
Abbot accused Clavel of lying, arguing that he had accepted a position as the vice president of marketing at Bio-Rad’s clinical diagnostics division, “the very same day he resigned”.
In its application for the restraining order, filed on November 2, Abbott argued that “Clavel had access to confidential and trade secret information including diagnostic and sensitive projects involving COVID-19 testing products”. The Illinois-based company also pointed out that Clavel was on a team for developing Abbott’s long-term strategic plan for its entire diagnostics business.
The judge sided in Abbott’s favour, agreeing with its argument that Clavel had access to trade secrets, and found that “in the absence of a temporary restraining order, Abbott has suffered and will continue to suffer irreparable harm”.
Additionally, she held that “the harm to Abbott substantially outweighs any potential harm to Clavel”, and “the public interest weighs in favour of protecting confidential information and trade secrets from unauthorised or improper disclosure”.
She also found that Clavel had “failed to work out his employment parameters with a competitor” and that the circumstantial evidence around Clavel’s departure from Abbott weighs in favour of a finding of “intentional conduct” and not a misunderstanding.
The order also allows for Abbott to expedite discovery to determine what information was allegedly stolen and forces Clavel to surrender the USB drives within 24 hours, as well as turning over sensitive emails within one week.
LSIPR has approached Abbott Laboratories for comment.
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