Dow Accuses Ge Of Stealing Secrets

Dow Chemical Co. sued General Electric Co. on Tuesday, alleging GE recruited employees from Dow’s automotive and plastics businesses to gain access to trade secrets.

The lawsuit said that for more than a year, GE’s plastics business hired former Dow employees and put them into similar jobs, causing them to use Dow’s trade secrets.

Dow and GE are major players in the fiercely competitive automotive supplier industry.

Judge Edward Sosnick of the Oakland County Circuit Court in Pontiac, Mich., issued a temporary restraining order Tuesday, preventing GE from placing a former Dow employee in a position where he can use Dow secrets, Dow officials said.

The order, pending trial, also requires GE to return any Dow documents that former employees may have taken to GE, and bans GE from destroying records of the former Dow employees and from contacting current Dow workers with job offers, Dow said.