NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Decode Genetics has sued five former employees for allegedly sharing company trade secrets and intellectual property and for breaking non-compete and non-solicitation provisions, the company said today.
Decode said the five employees, including former vice president of business development Hakon Hakonarson, were recruited by the Center for Applied Genomics, a business unit of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, which is also named in the suit. Four of the former employees are currently employed by CAG.
The suit, filed in the US District Court in Philadelphia, alleges that the former employees, “while still Decode employees and with the knowledge of senior CHOP staff, copied or sent directly to CHOP Decode proprietary methods, tools, business plans, and research results owned by the company,” Decode said in a statement.
Decode also said that evidence gathered from its computer systems indicate that the defendants' goal was to "further CAG’s commercial mission. This was to generate significant revenue for CHOP by patenting research results and licensing these patents to biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies,” Decode said.
Decode is seeking a preliminary injunction to prevent CAG from using or benefiting from Decode’s systems or information, the company said. A hearing on this motion was scheduled to begin today at 10 AM Eastern time.