Apple Files Lawsuit Against Ex-Employee for Product Leaks After Leaving Company

Urian B., Tech Times 11 March 2021, 11:03 pm

Apple had sued a former employee who had reportedly worked at the company for over a decade. The claims are that this ex-employee had shared certain trade secrets with a certain media contact in exchange for some favorable coverage of a recent startup that he had just invested in.

Apple files lawsuit

Apple had filed this complaint against a certain Simon Lancaster on Thursday in the official federal court of San Jose, California. Apple then said that he had served as the reporter's particular source of information. This was a role that had allegedly deepened shortly after he had decided to leave the company.

According to the report by Fortune, the closely guarded trade secrets had covered some details regarding unreleased hardware as well as some unannounced feature changes. The coverage spans even into future product announcements, according to the complaint filed by Apple.

Alleged information given in exchange for coverage

The complaint then noted that the deceitful as well as indefensible release of this particular product details was what enabled Lancaster's own misappropriation. This reported misappropriation has then undermined the said morals of the teams that had worked on the particular products and the features that were in question. It was noted that Lancaster could not be located immediately and that the court's electronic records still don't include information regarding his legal council.

An article by The Verge provides more clarity pertaining to the situation noting that in October of 2019, Lancaster had reportedly notified his then correspondent that he was actually planning to leave Apple. He then reportedly gave some secret information regarding Apple products and even asked if they would want to write a story about a certain 12-year Apple Design Veteran that left the company for an "amazing startup."

Apple 'Project X'

The correspondent then allegedly asked Lancaster to hand some additional information regarding Apple's unannounced project that Apple reportedly refers to as "Project X." Lancaster then reportedly handed in his notice of resignation on the 15th of October but still kept in contact with the media source. It was noted that the next day, they had allegedly asked for some particularly specific documents that they wanted Lancaster to get before he had officially left the company.

Apple now also alleges that Lancaster had specifically attended a certain meeting regarding Apple's "Project X" even after he had reportedly submitted a notice of resignation. This was specifically to be able to gather more information for him to be able to pass along to his particular media contact. This was despite the fact that he had reportedly been instructed by some of the other employees not to attend.

The company also reportedly claims that Lancaster has used his own Apple credentials to download some confidential information closely until his employment had ended at midnight of November 1 in 2019. Apple alleges that Lancaster had logged in from some external location at around 10:24 PM that day.

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Written by Urian Buenconsejo