KODAK SUES FORMER EXEC. TO PROTECT INKJET-DATA FROM HP

[Anonymous]

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20100218/BUSINESS/2180322/1001
KODAK SUES FORMER EXEC. TO PROTECT
INKJET DATA FROM HP 
Counting
heavily on a new inkjet printing press to help it return to
profitability, Eastman Kodak Co. is suing a laid-off executive to block
him — and his insider knowledge about the press — from going to a
competitor.The photo and imaging company filed a lawsuit this week in
state Supreme Court in Monroe County, seeking a court order enforcing
the non-compete clause that Robert Carmosino previously signed and
denying him for at least 18 months a job at Hewlett-Packard Co.

The
legal action revolves around Kodak’s much-hyped Prosper press.The
company has been working on the technology behind it for years and
expects to ship its first press later this year. Kodak expects its young
commercial inkjet business to generate $1.5 billion in annual revenues
within five years, CEO Antonio M. Perez told Wall Street analysts
earlier this month.

Carmosino joined Kodak in 2006 as vice
president of global and strategic account sales for its Graphic
Communications Group, which provides hardware and software to the
commercial printing industry.Along with his knowledge about details such
as the company’s profit margins on its digital printers and color
production presses, Carmosino was “intimately involved in the
development and execution of Kodak’s confidential, strategic
commercialization cycle for the Prosper printing platform,” the company
says in the 10-page civil suit.

Carmosino, of Irvington,
Westchester County, has an unlisted phone number and could not be
reached for comment.According to the lawsuit, Kodak notified Carmosino
in November 2009 that vice president-level executives covering various
businesses or strategic accounts were being replaced with a single vice
president covering a particular geographic region. The company asked him
to stay on through the end of March 2010. But in early January,
Carmosino told Kodak he had taken a job with California-based HP
overseeing marketing and sales of that company’s commercial printing
business.

Kodak’s allegation is that such a job would violate the
non-compete clause in the executive employment agreement Carmosino
signed on April 26, 2006.Kodak, HP and Carmosino attempted to agree on
another HP position in which his knowledge of Kodak’s business wouldn’t
conflict with his work selling HP’s T300 line, which is a direct
competitor to Prosper. But according to the suit, those negotiations
broke down, even after Kodak offered to continue to pay Carmosino during
the duration of his non-compete clause.Carmosino was to have started
work at HP this week, the suit says.

http://rocnow.com/article/business/2010100217021
Kodak sues former executive, seeks to
block him from joining Hewlett-Packard
Eastman Kodak Co. is suing a former executive, who had access
to information about one of its key technologies, for going to work for a
competitor.The photo and imaging company filed a lawsuit this week in
state Supreme Court in Monroe County, seeking to block Robert Carmosino
from taking a job at Hewlett-Packard Co.

Carmosino, of Irvington,
Westchester County, could not be reached for comment.He joined Kodak in
2006 as vice president of global and strategic account sales for its
Graphic Communications Group, which provides hardware and software to
the commercial printing industry.

According to the lawsuit, Kodak
notified Carmosino in November 2009 that vice president-level
executives covering various businesses or strategic accounts were being
replaced with a single vice president covering a particular geographic
region. The company asked him to stay on through the end of March
2010.In early January, Carmosino told Kodak he had taken a job with
California-based Hewlett-Packard as its publishing segment business
manager and he would leave in mid January.

However, according to
the suit, that job — overseeing sales and marketing of HP’s commercial
printing business — violates a non-compete clause in the employment
agreement Carmosino signed when he started with Kodak.Kodak, HP and
Carmosino attempted to negotiate a position where his knowledge about
Kodak’s business, such as its Prosper commercial inkjet printer system,
would not come into conflict with his work selling HP’s T300 line, which
is a direct competitor to Prosper. But according to the suit, those
negotiations broke down, even after Kodak offered to continue to pay
Carmosino for the 18 months of his non-compete clause.

Carmosino
was to have started work at HP this week, the suit alleges.Kodak is
asking for a court order keeping Carmosino from working at HP for 18
months in any capacity where he would be able to disclose confidential
or proprietary Kodak information.Kodak is heavily banking on its Prosper
system. The first unit is set to ship in the first half of this year,
and Kodak is projecting potential sales of close to $1.5 billion
annually within five years.

[Author]

February 22, 2010 at 11:25 AM