Former Summer Infant executives named in lawsuit speaking out

WOONSOCKET – Three former executives at Summer Infant who are being sued for alleged trade secret theft are speaking out.
Carol Bramson, former CEO; Annamaria Dooley, former senior vice president of product development; and Kenneth Price, former president of global sales and marketing; said in a news release that they felt it was time to make their feelings heard after the baby product maker said earlier this week that it is continuing to pursue claims against them.
The company announced this week that it reached a confidential settlement with two other defendants, Carson J. Darling and Dulcie M. Madden, principals of Rest Devices Inc., a former consultant to Summer Infant. At the same time, it said it would continue to pursue its lawsuit, which was filed in May, against the former executives.
Bramson, Price and Dooley said in the release that they will continue to “vigorously defend themselves” against Summer’s charges and pursue counterclaims against the company asserting, among other things, “that Summer has pursued the action for an improper purpose, knowing that its former executives had not formed any new, competing company.”
Summer Infant’s lawsuit said the defendants conspired together to intentionally steal Summer’s information to create a new startup company “to directly compete with Summer in the highly competitive juvenile products industry.”
The release said the defendants “are prepared to prove that Summer made numerous false allegations in its complaint in an effort to secure concessions from its former executives and competitor Rest Devices.”
“Ms. Bramson, Ms. Dooley and I will vigorously resist Summer’s misuse of the legal system, and its attempt to mar our reputations and diminish our valuable contributions to Summer,” Price said in the news release.
Said Bramson, “The brand focus, product innovation activities and strategic positioning we pursued for Summer, including our recommendation for Summer Infant to affiliate with Rest Devices, were all driven by our commitment to shareholder value creation.”
During their tenure at Summer Infant, they said the company realized more than 8 percent in core-branded product sales and significant improvement in gross margins, EBITDA and earnings per share over the prior year.
Said Dooley, “The actions of Summer’s current leadership have resulted in a significant reduction in shareholder value and undermine the company’s important mission to support infants, children and their families.”
The former executives noted the $3.7 million in legal costs, mostly from the lawsuit, that Summer Infant has incurred.

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