Shared Health sued by IT firm

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This article was published 05/07/2022 (1218 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg company is suing the provincial health authority for nearly $3 million, alleging Shared Health violated its intellectual property rights and engaged in a biased procurement process.

In a statement of claim filed in the Court of Queen’s Bench on June 30, OwniCloud Inc. said it was asked to develop a “diagnostic image case allocation system” by a Shared Health quality specialist on Dec. 22, 2021.

Within a five-day period and without a contract, the company built the system at the request of Shared Health and demonstrated an early model to the quality specialist on Dec. 27, with subsequent work to complete the system proceeded at the request of the Shared Health employee, according to the statement.

Three weeks later, the Shared Health employee informed the company it preferred a different information technology company for the job and would no longer pursue the program created by OwniCloud Inc., the statement of claim continued.

Efforts by OwniClound Inc. to communicate with Shared Health were refused, the statement alleges.

According to court documents, the Shared Health employee “carefully organized” an unfair competition to solicit services for the provincial health authority, violated typical tendering processes and infringed upon OwniCloud Inc.’s intellectual property rights. The Shared Health employee is not listed as a defendant.

OwniCloud Inc. is claiming more than $2.9 million in damages. The company declined to comment on the civil suit Tuesday.

Shared Health has not yet filed a statement of defence.

“Given this is a matter before the courts, Shared Health will defer public comment at this time,” a spokesman said.

— Staff