Shared Health violated intellectual property rights, Winnipeg IT company claims in lawsuit

A Winnipeg information technology company is suing Shared Health for nearly $3 million, alleging the Manitoba provincial health agency violated its intellectual property rights and organized an unfair competition for services.

OwniCloud Inc. said it was asked to develop a "diagnostic image case allocation system" in December 2021 by a quality specialist from Shared Health's diagnostic services, according to a statement of claim filed in the Court of Queen's Bench on June 30.

Haoran Yang, OwniCloud's owner, said he built the system in five days and presented it to the Shared Health employee on Dec. 27.

Overall, the Shared Health employee was "very satisfied" with the system OwniCloud had developed, so the IT company continued to do additional work on it at the request of the quality specialist, according to the court filing.

The following month, the Shared Health employee said they would demonstrate the system to their supervisor, and on  Jan. 17, the supervisor informed OwniCloud that they preferred another company's model, according to the statement of claim.

OwniCloud asked to demonstrate its system, which it had improved upon since the December presentation, but was refused, the claim says.

The suit alleges the Shared Health employee "carefully organized" an unfair competition for services, infringed upon the company's intellectual property and "broke all the rules."

The company is seeking just over $2.9 million in damages.

Shared Health hasn't filed a statement of defence yet, and none of the allegations have been proven in court.

In an email Wednesday, a spokesperson said because the matter is before the courts, Shared Health will not comment at this time.