Eastman Kodak Co. is suing a former executive, who had access to information about one of its key technologies, for going to work for a competitor.
The photo and imaging company filed a lawsuit this week in state Supreme Court in Monroe County, seeking to block Robert Carmosino from taking a job at Hewlett-Packard Co.
Carmosino, of Irvington, Westchester County, could not be reached for comment.
He joined Kodak in 2006 as vice president of global and strategic account sales for its Graphic Communications Group, which provides hardware and software to the commercial printing industry.
According to the lawsuit, Kodak notified Carmosino in November 2009 that vice president-level executives covering various businesses or strategic accounts were being replaced with a single vice president covering a particular geographic region. The company asked him to stay on through the end of March 2010.
In early January, Carmosino told Kodak he had taken a job with California-based Hewlett-Packard as its publishing segment business manager and he would leave in mid January.
However, according to the suit, that job — overseeing sales and marketing of HP’s commercial printing business — violates a non-compete clause in the employment agreement Carmosino signed when he started with Kodak.
Kodak, HP and Carmosino attempted to negotiate a position where his knowledge about Kodak’s business, such as its Prosper commercial inkjet printer system, would not come into conflict with his work selling HP’s T300 line, which is a direct competitor to Prosper. But according to the suit, those negotiations broke down, even after Kodak offered to continue to pay Carmosino for the 18 months of his non-compete clause.
Carmosino was to have started work at HP this week, the suit alleges.
Kodak is asking for a court order keeping Carmosino from working at HP for 18 months in any capacity where he would be able to disclose confidential or proprietary Kodak information.
Kodak is heavily banking on its Prosper system. The first unit is set to ship in the first half of this year, and Kodak is projecting potential sales of close to $1.5 billion annually within five years.
