Healthcare giant Smith & Nephew (FTSE:SN, NYSE:SNN) came to terms with former staffing services provider Northwest Ortho Plus, putting to bed a year-old trade secrets dispute.
The original lawsuit, which accused Northwest of damaging Smith’s goodwill and compromising valuable corporate information, was seeking $56 million in damages, but the companies did not disclose the terms of their newly forged settlement.
Smith last June sued Northwest, claiming that sales representatives from the staffing company had violated non-competition and non-solicitation provisions by signing on with rival device maker Avenue Medical Products.
Smith, which had contracted with Northwest for 17 years, won a preliminary victory when a judge in December ordered 5 Northwest employees to keep their distance from more than 100 Smith clients while the case was underway. The judge also ruled that the employees in question had caused "irreparable harm" to Smith’s business relationships, Law360.com reported.
The new settlement effectively closed the books on all disputes involved int he lawsuit, and each party paid its own legal fees, but few other details were available about the terms of the deal.
