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| Apple is suing former employee for divulging trade secrets to journalists |
Apple (Simon Lancaster) filed a lawsuit against Simon Lancaster, the company's former product design engineer, accusing him of divulging and selling trade secrets and product details that had not been disclosed to anonymous reporters.
Lancaster clearly did just that, hoping to promote her next venture after leaving Apple.
Thousands of our employees work tirelessly every day to develop new products, services and features to satisfy our customers. Misuse of confidential ideas and information can undermine your efforts and harm your business and customers.
"We take it very seriously that we deliberately steal our trade secrets from this person in violation of ethics and guidelines, all for our personal benefit, and we will do everything in our power to protect our valuable innovations," she added.
According to Apple's lawsuit, Lancaster received and corresponded release information starting in 2018, and the two were released for the second year.
Lancaster reportedly contacted the reporter in the spring of 2019 and asked him to investigate rumors of potential Apple products that could cause problems for his startup.
The lawsuit also alleges that Lancaster bragged about being an outsider shortly after that conversation. He said if the company's financing reaches $ 1 million, he will create a story for his startup.
Lancaster told reporters in October 2019 that he intended to leave Apple to provide sensitive information about Apple products and asked if he wanted to write about a senior Apple designer who has worked at Apple for 12 years and is focused on preparing to start a company. . .
It was also alleged that the reporter asked Lancaster to provide more information about an unannounced Apple project called Project X.
Lancaster then submitted a letter of resignation to Apple on October 15, but kept chatting with the reporter. The next day, the reporter asked what specific documents Lancaster should have before leaving the company.
Apple also claimed that although Lancaster had submitted notice of resignation, it was still attending meetings for Project X to allow journalists to pass on additional information, although other employees asked him not to attend.
Apple said: Lancaster will use its Apple account to upload sensitive information until it ends its job at midnight on November 1, 2019.
According to Apple, Lancaster subscribed from an external website to get information the company said could help new employers.
Lancaster joined Apple in 2008 and worked for Apple for 11 years before leaving the company in 2019 to join materials design firm Arris Composites as Head of Consumer Goods.