Carl Zeiss Meditec AG reaches settlement with Topcon over illicitly obtained information
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Key takeaways:
- The stolen Zeiss files acquired by Topcon included highly confidential information.
- Topcon has agreed to pay a financial award and destroy any stolen information.
Carl Zeiss Meditec AG reached a settlement in a lawsuit against Topcon over claims of illicitly obtained stolen Zeiss files, including highly confidential information, according to a press release.
Under the terms of the settlement, Topcon agreed to pay an undisclosed financial award to Zeiss’ U.S. subsidiary within 30 days, destroy and not use any stolen information, and return an “improperly procured and wrongfully used” Zeiss Cirrus device.
Image: Adobe Stock
Topcon will also destroy all copies of source code for its HFA Extractor and DICOM Decoder software applications, which were reportedly developed using information stolen from Zeiss, and remove the DICOM Decoder from the Topcon Harmony, the release said.
Topcon agreed to “a permanent ban on using the source code for Topcon’s HFA Extractor or DICOM Decoder to develop similar products and a 2-year worldwide ban on Topcon regarding the future development or release of any features that are equivalent to its HFA Extractor or DICOM Decoder offerings.”
An additional 2-year ban will prevent Topcon from reverse engineering with Zeiss’ data and any employees or consultants involved in this case from developing these features.
“We have invested heavily over the years to earn our strong market position in ophthalmology and leadership in digital innovation,” Euan S. Thomson, PhD, CEO of Carl Zeiss Meditec Inc., said in the release. “Developing market-shaping health care innovations to improve patients’ lives is what we do at Carl Zeiss Meditec; it’s in our DNA. And we cannot tolerate theft of our technologies of any kind.”
The settlement went into effect Jan. 9, and the court will retain jurisdiction to enforce the settlement for 5 years.
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