Sink or swim: sperm bank takes on former employees who set up rival firm
Two former employees of the Seattle Sperm Bank (SSB) have been sued for allegedly stealing trade secrets to set up a rival bank in Texas.
SSB filed the complaint at the US District Court for the Western District of Washington, at Seattle, on Monday, October 2.
It accused two former employees who were hired in May and June 2015 of stealing trade secrets before setting up a rival firm, Cryobank America.
“Despite granting a level of trust and confidence to the employees, which SSB did not grant to all other employees, within months of employment they began to initiate plans to compete against SSB,” the complaint read.
SSB went on to state that as a sperm bank, it has to comply with various federal and state legislation including keeping a list of all operating procedures relating to red blood cell tests to prevent the increased risk of disease.
SSB claimed the two employees then accessed confidential data stored on a server, including forms and documents filled out by clients.
“Following their departure, SSB engaged in an audit of its computer systems and discovered that between December 15, 2016 and May 2, 2017, defendants accessed SSB’s confidential and trade secret materials that were stored on a server in order to copy ten folders to a removable hard drive,” the complaint read.
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