Earlier this week, Belimed, Inc filed a suit against ex-employee Jeffrey Bleecker in the District of South Carolina Charleston Division. The plaintiff is alleging that the defendant had violated his Non-Disclourse Agreement with the plaintiff’s organization.
The plaintiff is a business that delivers “medical and surgical instrument sterilization, disinfection, and cleaning products and services” to hospitals all over the country.
The complaint states that “defendant Bleecker expressly agreed that because he was privy to Belimed’s confidential and proprietary trade secret and business information that he would not work for Belimed’s direct competitor Getinge Corporation for one year following his departure from Belimed.”
The plaintiff also claimed that the defendant had notified Belimed that he would be going into “his own general contracting business,” but instead was found to have changed his employment status on LinkedIn less than a year to working with the direct competitor of Belimed.
According to the defendant’s nondisclosure agreement, he was not allowed to discuss information regarding product designs as well as products shortages, or customer lists that Belimed had at the time of his departure or years past.
The plaintiff is also alleging that Getinge would have a lot to gain from employing Bleecker since they are not limited to the business of sterilization and disinfecting equipment, but they also provide “planning, design, manufacture, installation, and servicing for additional equipment used to support surgical teams beyond the scope of products that Belimed provides.”
One of the internal strategies that the plaintiff takes with its products is to “identify ways to distinguish its products and services from those of competitors like Getinge in order to overcome competitors broader offering.”
The plaintiff also asserts that both Getinge and Blimed also compete in building relationships with similar individuals in health care facilities that make decisions on purchasing materials from them and their different competitors.
The defendant is facing three counts: breach of contract, violation of South Carolina Trade Secret Act, and violation of the Federal Defend Secrets Act.
The plaintiff is being represented by Duffy & Young LLC
