Summer Infant sues former CEO and execs, alleges trade secret theft

WOONSOCKET – Summer Infant, a maker of products for the newborn to age 3 group, has sued board member and former CEO Carol Bramson as well as two other former company executives and company consultants in federal court alleging theft and misappropriation of trade secrets after it says they were caught “red-handed” by writing about their plans to create a competing company.
The company is seeking injunctive relief, return of the company’s confidential and proprietary information, along with other compensatory and punitive damages, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing about the lawsuit, which was made Wednesday.
Summer Infant announced a new CEO on May 6, Robert Stebenne. At the time, the company said Bramson had resigned, but would remain on the board of directors. Bramson was appointed CEO in February 2014; she was a board member at the time.
The other individuals named in the lawsuit are Annamaria Dooley, the company’s former senior vice president of product development, who resigned May 15; Kenneth N. Price, former president of global sales and marketing (a position he held until May 27); and Carson J. Darling and Dulcie Madden, employees of Rest Devices Inc., a consultant to Summer Infant. In addition, Bruce Work also was named in the lawsuit.
“This action arises out of the brazen, unlawful and intentional theft of Summer’s non-public, confidential and proprietary information, intellectual property, trade secrets, and business, branding and marketing strategies by several fiduciaries of Summer, including a current director who until very recently was also the Summer chief executive officer, other senior executives of Summer and several former consultants to Summer for the purpose of launching a directly competing business,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit states that Bramson, Dooley and Price conspired together with several employees of the technology firm Rest Devices – which had been paid $500,000 to work on Summer’s new products under strict confidentiality agreements – to intentionally steal Summer’s information to create a new startup company “to directly compete with Summer in the highly competitive juvenile products industry.”
On May 20, Summer said it discovered what was going on when Dooley sent an email to Bramson and “seemingly inadvertently” sent one to her former corporate email address at Summer, which the company had been monitoring since her abrupt resignation to avoid any business disruption.
“That email exposes defendant’s conspiracy to steal the very heart of Summer’s intellectual property,” the lawsuit reads.
It also states that Bramson, of Dover, Mass., would be the CEO of the new startup. She was paid more than $450,000 by Summer in 2014, excluding “lucrative stock options” and other benefits, the lawsuit states. According to her LinkedIn profile, Bramson is the president and founder of TBG Capital LLC, a position she has held since 2001.

Dooley, of Westwood, Mass., was hired in late 2014, for $260,000, excluding benefits. Price, hired in early 2014, made more than $400,000, excluding stock options and benefits.
None of the defendants could be immediately reached for comment. Paul M. Kessimian, a lawyer representing Summer Infant, also could not be reached.

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