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15 December 2022AmericasStaff Writer

J&J accuses ex-employees of stealing trade secrets

Lawsuit alleges former employees stole a “treasure trove” of confidential information from three J&J units | Complaint says defendant engaged in a systematic process of hiring Auris staff.

A trio of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) subsidiaries have accused former employees of stealing at least 26,000 documents and using the information to file a patent application related to medical robotics.

J&J units Auris Health, Verb Surgical and Cilag filed their suit on Monday, December 12, against former employees and Noah Medical Corporation in a bid to “stop the shameless, systematic, and ongoing misappropriation of trade secrets”.

Former employees have allegedly stolen a “treasure trove" of confidential information, including significant trade secrets material such as source code, designs and test cases.

According to the suit, there is “incontrovertible evidence” that Noah Medical used some of these stolen trade secrets to file a patent application.

J&J has accused Noah Medical of engaging in a “systematic” process of hiring Auris employees to maximise its ability to obtain Auris’ trade secrets, claiming that since mid-2020, Noah Medical has hired at least 16 Auris engineers.

The suit alleged that Noah Medical’s founder and CEO, who was an Auris employee, has retained J&J’s documents despite representing that he would promptly return them.

Noah Medical’s vice president of research and innovation is also accused of taking Auris’ trade secrets. According to the suit, the former employee supervised Auris’s early-stage innovations for its robotic platforms and was involved in all aspects of research and development.

“Although Noah operates in secrecy and has not yet shipped any products, plaintiffs have already uncovered at least one instance where Noah used Auris trade secrets misappropriated by Romo to apply for a patent,” said the suit.

Back in June 2020, Noah Medical filed a provision patent application for a robotic endoscopy system which, according to J&J, closely resembles a device developed by Auris’ research and innovation team primarily in 2018.

J&J has asked the court for injunctive relief against the ex-employees and an order requiring the return of the trade secrets. The trio have also asked the court for injunctive relief against Noah Medical and damages.

WIPR has asked Noah Medical for a comment.

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More on this story

Medtech
4 August 2022   Judge urges $18m award in ‘horrific’ counterfeiting case | Counterfeits were ‘bacterially contaminated’ | Ethicon.
Americas
11 February 2021   A Johnson & Johnson unit has accused eye care product manufacturer Alcon of trade secrets theft, alleging that it had perpetrated “piracy of a nearly unfathomable scale” in ripping off a computer code.
Big Pharma
20 April 2023   Canadian firm alleges infringement of patent directed to cosmetic and pharmaceutical formulations | Pharma giant declined a licensing agreement.