Black-Owned Tech Firm Sues Kaiser Permanente Over Patent Infringement

Style Magazine Newswire | 1/8/2018, 3:33 p.m.
Better Life Technologies Group, Inc., a small African-American technology company focusing on wireless wearable technologies, has sued Kaiser Permanente for …
Wireless wearable technology produced by Better Life Technologies Group

Nationwide — Better Life Technologies Group, Inc., a small African-American technology company focusing on wireless wearable technologies, has sued Kaiser Permanente for $50 million, claiming the medical giant stole its trade secrets on wearable medical devices and shared them with its competitors which in its view may have contributed to the birth of a $30 billion dollar industry which focuses on wireless-wearable wellness communications between physicians and patients. Better Life’s issued patent US 8,659,432 B2 covers human monitoring in aquatic environments and patient monitoring applications in hospitals and homes.

The Better Life Technologies Group claims in federal court that Kaiser developed wearable medical devices with other companies after signing a nondisclosure agreement with Better Life in 2012.

“On or about late 2016, plaintiff discovered that defendant had used plaintiff’s proprietary trade secrets to enter into business relationships with plaintiff’s competitors and had derived income from providing plaintiff’s trade secrets to plaintiff’s competitors and other unauthorized recipients,” the lawsuit states.

The trade secrets involved “a patent for technology for a wireless wearable device designed for patients suffering from diabetes, heart conditions, and other medical conditions which require monitoring,” Better Life says in the complaint.

Better Life representatives began speaking to Kaiser C-level Officers in 2011-2012 and had several meetings regarding their innovative Physician to Patient wireless-wearable communication technologies. Kaiser signed a Non-Compete Non-Disclosure agreement with Better Life’s sister company ViQUAL Medical promising not to share Better Life’s disclosed intellectual property and trade secrets. At the time, ViQUAL Medical was created to be a medical device division of Better Life Technologies Group, Inc., which received intellectual property from Better Life and created its own unique patent-pending technologies which still have patent-pending status. Better Life has developed technologies that are designed to monitor human ailments ranging from diabetes to cancer.

Better Life Technologies Group, Inc. has several prototypes of its intended technology but still seeks funding to get its products to market. The company had hoped that their work with Kaiser would successfully launch their technology and devices. Better Life was featured in the March 2017 issue of Essence Magazine, and has been interviewed by BET, local television Station KUSI and NBC. Better Life has had its technology endorsed by the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff’s Engineering Department. “One of our company’s objectives has always been to show the world that if the doors of diversity could open ever so slightly, the African-American science community has powerful technological developments that can have a huge impact on science and technology,” says George McKinney; CEO/Founder of Better Life Technologies Group.

For more information about Better Life Technologies and its team groundbreaking technology team, please visit www.betterlifetechinc.com.

To learn about their wireless wearable technologies, watch the follow videos:

YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF0W7kR3a2E

Vimeo – https://vimeo.com/169047567

YouTube

Swim safety device

Here we have a prototype of our device. It is a rendition of the many aspects of our technology that we intend to develop. This demonstration of our device was put forth by the engineering team of Randy Beck for Better Life Technologies Group, Inc.