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Microcap & Penny Stocks : TMMI - Total Multimedia -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Larry Panik who wrote (6209)	11/24/1997 9:55:00 AM
From: daveG	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19109

Another big Co very interested in the image storage business********* Quote.com News Item #4630731 Headline: Bayer Unit Sues GE To Prevent Ex-Employee From Divulging Secrets ====================================================================== By William M. Carley Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal A U.S. unit of Bayer AG of Germany said it sued General Electric Co. in Federal District Court in Chicago to prevent a former Bayer employee from divulging medical-imaging trade secrets to GE. Agfa, the Bayer unit, sought a temporary restraining order that would stop Vishal Wanchoo, who had been Agfa's vice president of electronic imaging, from using Agfa's customer and product data to benefit GE's medical systems business. At a hearing Friday, no court orders were issued, and a second hearing was scheduled for Dec. 12, a spokesman for General Electric said. Mr. Wanchoo had headed Agfa's picture archiving and communications systems for hospitals and other medical centers. He left Agfa, whose U.S. operations are based in Ridgefield Park, N.J., on Nov. 14 and subsequently went to work for GE medical, an Agfa spokeswoman said. A GE spokesman called the Agfa suit "meritless" and said GE is confident it will prevail in court. General Electric's medical unit, based in Waukesha, Wis., recently announced a major program to enter the digital-imaging field. While current systems often use film to record X-rays, a digital system can record and store X-rays and a variety of other medical scans in computers, and swiftly transmit the pictures to doctors in other locations for their examination. Agfa, in a news release, called its digital system "the world's leading" product line, and said GE medical is a major competitor. The news release said that as head of Agfa's system, Mr. Wanchoo "had integral knowledge of Agfa's customers and product development." Agfa refused to provide a copy of its court complaint. In the release, John Glass, Agfa senior vice president, said, "We are concerned that trade secrets and confidential customer information will end up in the hands of GE. We cannot allow this to happen." GE's spokesman said the company "vigorously denies Agfa's assertions that we hired an Agfa employee for the purpose of obtaining Agfa's trade secrets." He added that "upon hiring from a competitor, GE has a rigorous policy to insure that new employees understand their responsibility not to use or disclose confidential information of a former employer." The GE spokesman added that employees "in any industry are free to work wherever they want. People want to work for GE because we're a leader, not because they want to bring us trade secrets." Agfa is part of the Agfa-Gevaert imaging business based in Mortsel, Belgium, which in turn is a unit of Bayer, a chemical and pharmaceutical company based in Leverkusen. General Electric has headquarters in Fairfield, Conn. Copyright (c) 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. \| Previous \| ------ \| Resp