GE Healthcare brings TM claim against former employee

GE Healthcare, a subsidiary of General Electric, has sued a former employee, alleging copyright and trademark infringement.

The suit, which also claimed unfair competition, false advertising, and breach of contract, was filed at the US District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin on Tuesday, December 13.

It claimed that Benjamin Williams, who left the company in 2009 and formed his own company, Dexa, had infringed by distributing unauthorised software and using GE’s trademarks.

According to the suit, Dexa “purportedly services GE Healthcare’s bone density scanners by providing software upgrades to the scanners”.

GE Healthcare is a provider of medical technologies and services, with one of those technologies being bone density scanners and the accompanying enCORE software.

It holds copyright to the software code, originally released in December 2010. The copyright is registered as US number TX0008270374, effective November 2016.

During Williams’ time at the company, he “gained knowledge” of the scanners and software, according to the suit.

Williams allegedly learned that each software customer is provided with a unique feature code. This code decrypts certain features of the software to enable a set of scanner features specialised for that customer.

“Williams was aware that improper use of the customer feature codes could result in harm to GE Healthcare, GE Healthcare’s customers, and those customers’ patients,” said the suit.

GE Healthcare alleged that Dexa has repeatedly used the GE name and logo to create a false association and mislead GE Healthcare’s customers into believing that “Dexa provides bona fide GE Healthcare services, when it does not”.

According to the suit, Dexa uses the GE logo on its website and uses documentation with the logo and name on it.

In 2016, GE Healthcare became aware that Williams and his company have been copying and disseminating the software without authorisation, according to the suit.

It alleged that four years earlier, Williams had gained access to a bone density scanner housed at a facility in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.

Then, either Williams or a Dexa employee had copied the scanner’s system ID and feature code, and accessed and copied its version of the software without authorisation, with Williams saving that version for “further unauthorised copying and dissemination”.

In August this year, GE Healthcare said that Dexa installed the unauthorised copy onto a GE bone density scanner at a facility in Stoughton, Wisconsin.

According to the claim, Dexa didn’t tell the facility it was an unauthorised copy being installed, and the copy “caused problems with the scanner’s functionality”.

“Williams’ and Dexa’s actions are intentional, wilful, malicious, and done with a reckless disregard for public safety,” said the suit.

GE Healthcare is seeking injunctive relief, a jury trial, damages, enhanced damages, compensatory and punitive damages, and attorneys’ fees.