Syneron-Candela (NSDQ:ELOS) last week filed a lawsuit accusing InMode Aesthetic Solutions of poaching its sales staff and encouraging employees to violate non-competition agreements.
Syneron said it filed separate suits against 3 employees in March related to the poaching accusations, but that the 3 could not be joined to the case due to exclusive Massachusetts venue provisions.
The suit, filed in the US District Court for the Western District of Tennessee’s Eastern Division at Jackson, accuses InMode of “interfering with Syneron-Candela’s business and its employment relationships with its employees in West Tennessee” and encouraging employees to breach their contracts.
In the filing, Syneron claims that some time before Sept. 26 last year, InMode began recruiting one of its sales executives, Erik Dowell, to become InMode’s new Americas CEO. InMode CEO Moshe Mizrahy reportedly met with Dowell in October, and offered him the position shortly after.
The company claims that Dowell began recruiting members to join him at Inmode, and left Syneron on Jan. 13. On Jan. 25, Dowell officially joined InMode, according to the court records.
Syneron claims that Dowell “continues to retain Syneron-Candela’s information on his laptop computer.” The company continued that it believes that Dowell has used confidential information from his time with them to InMode’s benefit.
In the court documents, Syneron says the actions of InMode have “damaged Syneron-Candela and its goodwill and caused, and continue to cause, harm to Syneron-Candela for which an adequate remedy at law does not exist.”
The company is looking to block any further use of confidential information from Dowell and other employees, as well as seeking to bar employment of the sniped employees and prohibit any future poaching. The company is also looking for punitive and exemplary damages.