Sabinsa Europe GmbH has taken legal action against a former employee and a competitor for alleged theft of proprietary customer lists, technical information and other data in defiance of German law.
The law suit claims former Sabinsa employee Binoy Mathew had access to and stole Sabinsa Europe’s data and used that information for the benefit of BioActives Europe GmbH without Sabinsa’s consent. BioActives did not respond to a Cease & Desist letter sent earlier this year, and hence Sabinsa Europe GmbH has filed the case against Binoy and Managing Director of BioActives Syed M. Saleel in the Trade Court in Frankfurt, Germany.
Binoy was employed by Sabinsa Europe in 2006, and was sent an extraordinary dismissal notice on September 16, 2013 after the company became aware that he had stolen the data and begun working for BioActives several months prior to that time. Binoy filed a counter claim against Sabinsa fighting the grounds for dismissal, which was legally rejected by the Labour Court Offenbach.
Under German law prosecution is possible if the person has worked at a company and was entrusted with business and trade secrets known only to a limited number of persons and then this person shares them with the unauthorized or anyone for the purpose of competition and self interest with an intention to cause the damage to the defendant.
Sabinsa is seeking monetary damages and legal cost reimbursement as well as the destruction of the stolen data.