George McKinney, the founder and CEO of ViQUAL Medical Technology LLC, a small Black-owned firm, has been embattled in a tooth-and-nail legal brawl with Kaiser Permanente that has intensified over the course of 5 years.
He comments, “Kaiser has used investor intimidation, bullying, and the denigration of the value of IP to foster corporate greed while deceiving the court with false information. In addition, they have spent millions of dollars to destroy a company that is just trying to make the world a better place.
ViQUAL’s story like so many in the history of Black IP firms and inventors that have been squashed by mountains of corporate dollars used to mask the insidious nature of the denigration of their hard work.
He comments, “The theft of African American music, ideas, real property, and intellectual property has been integrated into American culture for years. How many times have we heard about the Black man or woman who has a great idea, something special, but after disclosing it, has found that the idea now belongs to someone else? Our history is replete with innovations, technologies, and patentable ideas that never saw the light of day because they were stolen. African American cities have been bombed because of racial prejudice. Remember Black Wall Street and the devastation that took place because some folks didn’t want equity, they wanted to feel and be superior.”
According to Attorney Ahmed J. Davis of Fish and Richardson and the national chair of the firm’s diversity and inclusion initiative, in his recent article entitled, “The Patent Oath and Its Legacy for Black Inventorship.” According to Attorney Davis, “African Americans continue to be underrepresented among patent holders.” To close the patenting gap, underrepresented inventors must be supported by inventors, educators, attorneys, law firms, and court officers. Only then will our patent system be able to benefit all investors.” Importantly, one problem is the equitable issuance of patents, and the preservation of such patents and ideas leaves Black inventors devastated due to a lack of resources to defend.
ViQUAL Medical Technology LLC has been fighting Kaiser Permanente for its life in a trade secret misappropriation litigation involving the technology of a sibling firm, Better Life Technologies Group, Inc. The battle has been challenging because Kaiser has utilized deceptive tactics to coerce a corporation under duress to sign a walk-away agreement based on fabrication and deception. ViQUAL Medical was founded as a medical device branch of Better Life technology Group, Inc., and has since developed its own exclusive patent-pending and trade-secret technology.
The trade secrets involved “a technology designed to help monitor patients suffering from diabetes, heart conditions, cancer, and a variety of other medical diseases in an encrypted manner that complied with HIPPA regulations,” which was an entirely new concept in 2012. George McKinney and Keith Mathis, ViQUAL officials and founders, claim that their patent-pending technologies and inventions have also been included into the IOT (Internet of Things) healthcare application. Furthermore, ViQUAL claims that as a result of Kaiser’s breach of contract, they have lost hundreds of millions of dollars in income.
ViQUAL Medical was founded as a medical device division of Better Life technology Group, Inc., and it got intellectual property from Better Life Technologies Group, Inc. before developing its own patent-pending and trade-secret technology. The trade secrets involved “a technology designed to help monitor patients suffering from diabetes, heart conditions, cancer, and a variety of other medical diseases in an encrypted manner that complied with HIPPA regulations,” which was an entirely fresh notion in 2012.
ViQUAL claims that its trade secrets were stolen after mutually signing a nondisclosure non-compete deal with Kaiser in 2012, which bears the signature of Kaiser’s then-CTO, Jed Weisberg. Following that, ViQUAL revealed its trade secrets with Kaiser C-level executives and held talks about its unique physician-to-patient wireless-wearable communication technologies, which had global potential.
Kaiser has paid millions of dollars to resolve a racial discrimination case involving Blacks and Latinos, but it has not learned its lesson, and it is now being sued by the Department of Justice for Medicare fraud for pushing physicians to overstate patient problems in order to boost reimbursements…”These are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of corporate corruption and greed.”
George believes that he needs legal volunteers and cash to withstand this injustice against the corporate Goliath Kaiser Permanente.