Plastic surgery clinic targets former employees in copyright and TM suit

A New York-based plastic surgery clinic has taken legal action against two former employees and a rival clinic for copyright infringement, trademark counterfeiting and dilution, and cybersquatting.

Goals Aesthetics filed a complaint at the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York on Wednesday, January 9 alleging that its former employees had planned to steal Goal’s trade secrets, patient lists and IP for their benefit.

The accused are David Shokrian, a plastic surgeon and Farai Makoni, a former videographer and social media manager at the clinic. The filing also names Irina Khaimova, the owner of European Beauty Centre (EBC), a rival New York-based surgery centre.

The filing said that in March 2018, after being hired by Goals, Makoni signed a copy of Goal’s “Confidentiality, IP and Trade Secrets Agreement”.

In October 2018, Makoni quit on short notice.

During her employment at Goals, Makoni refused to use Microsoft computers and instead used her personal Apple computer to do her work, Goals claimed. It also said Makoni has “hundreds, if not thousands of documents, images, videos, IP and other trade secrets on her own personal computer”.

According to the complaint, Makoni also created various social media accounts for Goals, but did not follow company procedures and used her own personal email accounts to set them up.

Goals alleged that Makoni refused to share the passwords for these with anyone and did not turn over the logins or documents when she left the company. According to Goals, Makoni then went on to work for Khaimova at EBC.

“Makoni retains Goals’ IP and is using it for her own or her new employers’ benefit”, Goals said.

Shokrian was employed by Goals as an independent contractor from July 31, 2018.

The filing said Shokrian performed up to four surgeries a day and was being paid approximately $20,000 a week.

Shokrian worked with Goals until late 2018, when his employment was terminated for attempting to poach Goals’ customers by promising them surgery at low prices, from which he could retain 100% of the fee, the filing said.

Goals, which owns the mark for “GOALS AESTHETICS AND PLASTIC SURGERY” (trademark No 87707536), said Shokrian posted before and after photographs of surgeries which were taken from Goals’ Instagram page.

He also posted pictures of patients under the influence of anesthesia, prepped for surgery, without waivers for permission to take or publish the images, it added.

The complaint said that Goals’ copyrighted images, including its trademarked logo, were also posted by Khaimova and EBC to their Instagram pages and falsely attributed to Shokrian.

In its filing, Goals names social media platform Instagram as “one of its most important advertising platforms”, as it allows Goals to showcase its work with before and after pictures.

Aside from IP allegations, Goals also claimed that EBC operated without a licence at the back of a furniture store and was made to look like a salon and surgical centre. It added that EBC hired “unlicensed doctors from eastern Europe” to perform its surgeries.

In its claim, Goals has requested damages of at least $3.5 million.