Abbott sues former exec, claims he shared trade secrets

Maia Anderson -

Abbott has sued a former executive, claiming he resigned to join a rival diagnostics company and took trade secrets with him, STAT reported. 

Abbott filed a lawsuit against former global marketing executive Jerome Clavel Oct. 30, alleging he told his boss and a human resources executive that he was resigning for his health and didn't have another job lined up. Mr. Clavel was responsible for rapid diagnostic tests for infectious diseases, according to STAT

Abbott alleges that on the same day he resigned, Mr. Clavel accepted a job with Bio-Rad Laboratories, a California-based diagnostics company, as vice president of marketing in the clinical diagnostics division. The lawsuit says that Bio-Rad Laboratories competes in many of the same areas as Abbott, including for HIV and COVID-19 tests. 

Abbott says in the lawsuit that after he resigned, the company asked Mr. Clavel for his laptop and passwords and found he had downloaded files onto external storage devices. 

Mr. Clavel denies doing so, STAT reported. 

"Although it is impossible to determine exactly what Clavel may have copied to these external storage devices, the information available indicates that Clavel’s devices contain Abbott confidential documents and information," the lawsuit states. "The conclusion is inescapable—Clavel is leaving to join a competitor as a top marketing executive, and he’s planning to take Abbott’s confidential information and trade secrets with him."

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