CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — A man fired by North Shore-based Abbott Labs is being accused of using connections he had made when he was with the company to sell COVID tests made by smaller labs but posing them as products with a connection to Abbott.
It's a federal trademark infringement lawsuit filed by Abbott against Justin Brown.
Brown was fired by Abbott in April after the company says it found problems with his expense reports, including getting more than $23,000 in salary during military leave. The company says it found out Brown hadn't actually been in the military for 10 years.
The suit said as soon as he was fired by Abbott he set up an email account that looked a lot like the official Abbott email address. He allegedly tried to sell COVID tests that were made by other labs; he tried to pass them off as Abbott-approved, the suit says.
According to the lawsuit, one representative emailed him, saying, "I saw your email was Abbott, and you had the logo, but heard you weren't with Abbott anymore. I was confused."
Brown replied that he was simply reassigned, says the suit, through which Abbott seeks damages.
Abbott Laboratories is known in the COVID-19 field for a rapid test that can tell within minutes whether someone has the novel coronavirus.
