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Intellectual Property Law

: Womble Trade Secrets Blog

Bristol-Myers-Squibb Employee Pleads Guilty to Stealing Trade Secrets, Intending to Start Competitive Business in India

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The Times of India is reporting that a terminated Bristol Myers Squibb employee has pleaded guilty to stealing trade secrets from the drug manufacturer so that he could set up his own business in India. Shalin Jhaveri, 30, entered a guilty plea to a one-count charge of theft of trade secrets.

A Syracuse, New York resident, Jhaveri faces up to 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and up to three years of supervised release and deportation, US Attorney for the Northern District of New York Richard Hartunian said in a statement.

Jhaveri, who holds a Ph.D from Cornell University, also agreed to be deported from the US after completion of any jail term imposed. He cannot seek relief or appeal his order of deportation. After being deported Jhaveri would never be able to seek re-entry into the United States.

Jhaveri, who worked as a technical operations associate in Bristol-Myers' management training program, was arrested in February this year. He had worked at the company since November 2007, but was fired in February from the company's Syracuse facility, where it develops and manufactures biotechnology medicines for clinical and commercial use. While he was employed, Jhaveri stole the company's trade secrets and devised a plan to put them to his own use.

At the time of his arrest, he was meeting with an investor who was willing to finance Jhaveri's business venture planned in India with his father.

Jhaveri had taken more than 1,300 documents from the company starting in late 2009. He downloaded the information to his laptop and portable hard drives over the course of several days and shared these trade secrets with his potential investor. Bristol Myers Squibb's potential loss from the information Jhaveri sent in his email was $193,000, Green said. The trade secrets included formulas for producing a drug under development to treat a rare and deadly form of skin cancer. An industry expert has said the drug could be worth millions for Bristol.

In December 2009, Bristol-Myers' corporate security had notified its in-house computer security experts that Jhaveri was taking confidential material. They later learned that Jhaveri planned to start a biopharmaceutical business in India with his father.

We'll report back on the sentencing phase in this criminal matter.

Full post as published by Womble Trade Secrets Blog on November 08, 2010 (boomark / email).