Apple has filed a lawsuit against its former employee for violating the tech giant’s trade secrets laws and nondisclosure policies. The former employee leaked valuable information about unannounced features, the company’s future plans, and devices to a journalist.
The lawsuit was filed last week in the U.S District Court of the Northern District of Columbia. The former employee, Simon Lancaster, allegedly utilized his access at the company to “gain access to internal meetings and documents outside the scope” of his job. According to Apple, on the last day of Lancaster’s job in 2019, he downloaded a number of confidential documents.
Apple sues former employee for allegedly violating nondisclosure policies and selling valuable information
Lancaster worked at Apple for almost a decade and then he left it to join the materials research and development company Arris. The valuable information that Lancaster took from Apple, benefited him at his new job at Arris, the report explained.
Despite over a decade of employment at Apple, Lancaster abused his position and trust within the company to systematically disseminate Apple’s sensitive trade secret information in an effort to obtain personal benefits. He used his seniority to gain access to internal meetings and documents outside the scope of his job’s responsibilities containing Apple’s trade secrets, and he provided these trade secrets to his outside media correspondent.
The report was first sighted by Apple Insider, the lawsuit shows that the unnamed journalist made contact with Lancaster back in November 2018. Which would mean that the exchange of information conducted throughout 2018-2019.
Lancaster’s role as the Correspondent’s “source” deepened even after heannounced his resignation from his role at Apple. Indeed, Apple’s internal investigation of theApple-owned devices provided to Lancaster as part of his employment shows that after Lancasterannounced his resignation, he communicated with the Correspondent regarding specific Appletrade secrets sought by the Correspondent and took specific steps to obtain additional Apple tradesecrets.
Lancaster attended several meetings about “Project X” at Apple and shared the information with the media correspondent. The correspondent used the information in multiple articles and credited the information to a “source” at Apple. The Cupertino tech giant has warned with the lawsuit that Lancaster proves to be “an ongoing threat of misappropriation.”
Apple intends to find Lancaster charged with breaching a written contract and violating the Defense of Trade Secret Act and California Uniform Trade Secret Act. The company is hoping for punitive damages and a trial in front of a grand jury.
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