An Orlando biomedical firm

battles in court with a competitor over allegations of false claims advertising and theft of trade secrets.

An Orlando biomedical company that attracted more than $16 million in venture-capital investments is embroiled in litigation with a competitor over allegations of false claims advertising and theft of trade secrets.

The company, Vestagen, is fighting a lawsuit from a California competitor, Strategic Partners Inc., and has filed its own lawsuit alleging that SPI hired away one of its top sales executives, who then disclosed some of Vestagen’s secrets.

Vestagen claimed in 2013 that its Vestex hospital garments “helped guard workers and patients from pathogens and other contaminants,” including staph and potentially deadly MRSA. The clothing supposedly guarded against bacteria and disease by repelling moisture, and because it was treated with an anti-bacterial substance. In 2014, Vestagen added jobs steadily and landed new contracts and investments.

Vestagen donated thousands of garments to West African health care workers battling the Ebola epidemic of 2014.

But the SPI lawsuit alleges that Vestagen advertised false information about its products. SPI also complained to the Better Business Bureau, which last year concluded that Vestagen’s statements about its garments were “unsupported,” and that further testing and medical trials were needed.

After the Bureau stepped in to investigate, Vestagen agreed to stop claiming that its garments prevent transmission of health care-associated infections, according to a news release from the Bureau’s National Advertising Division.

But the lawsuit by SPI is proceeding in California courts, where it claims that it has lost revenue because of unfair competition from Vestagen’s “falsely advertised Vestex products.”

Vestagen has fired back in that lawsuit, with counterclaims that allege SPI stole Vestagen’s secrets when the two companies talked to each other about the industry in 2011, under a signed non-disclosure agreement.

And just last week, Vestagen filed a new lawsuit in Orlando against SPI, alleging that SPI hired Edward James Beyer away from Vestagen in February. Beyer had been Vestagen’s senior vice president of sales.

The new lawsuit alleges that Beyer and SPI are “using and disclosing Vestagen’s confidential information” in violation of a restrictive contract that Beyer had signed.

Attempts to reach someone at Vestagen about the litigation were not immediately successful.

Vestagen’s venture capital investments have come from Sofinnova HealthQuest Capital of Menlo Park, Calif., Clearwell Group of Tampa and other firms.