Apple is taking legal action against former Materials chairman Simon Lancaster for allegedly leaking trade secrets to the media. The case accuses Lancaster of abusing his “position and trust in the company to systematically disclose Apple’s sensitive trade secret information in an attempt to gain personal benefits.”
As first reported by AppleInsider, the court document setting out the case was released Thursday. Lancaster allegedly used his senior role at Apple to “gain access to internal meetings and documents outside the scope” of his work as a leader at Apple. In fact, on his last day at Apple, November 1, 2019, he allegedly downloaded a “significant number” of confidential Apple documents.
Lancaster left Apple after a decade to join materials research and development company Arris, which is actually an Apple vendor. The trade secrets he stole from Apple continued to benefit him in his new position at Arris, the report explains. Lancaster describes the role at Arris as a ‘startup itch’.
But things get even more interesting when the media aspect of this story comes up. The case explains that the reporter contacted Lancaster for the first time in November 2018, a full year before leaving Apple. Apple trade secrets were allegedly exchanged throughout 2018 and 2019.
In the spring of 2019, Lancaster expressed dissatisfaction with Apple to the correspondent. His dissatisfaction with information and conviction was based on a story published that day, which reported that Apple would manufacture a new hardware product. Shortly afterwards, Lancaster asked the correspondent to investigate the content of that story because ‘it’s trouble for me. [Lancaster’s] startup. The correspondent replied, “I will see what I can find out.”
Less than two weeks later, Lancaster told a third party that the correspondent had pledged to publish an article about Lancaster’s start-up if he received $ 1 million in funding. On information and belief, the correspondent agreed to publish the article in exchange for Lancaster’s ongoing misappropriation of Apple trade secrets.
The anonymous media that used the information in various articles and attributed the information to a “source” at Apple. Details on the topics are unclear, but Lancaster attended several meetings on ‘Project X’ at Apple and shared all the information with the media correspondent.
The lawsuit reads:
The trade secrets that Lancaster stole and sent to the correspondent for publication contain information about unreleased Apple hardware products, unannounced feature changes to existing hardware products, and future product announcements, all of which are closely monitored.
Going forward, Apple is warning in the lawsuit that Lancaster remains an “ongoing threat of misappropriation,” given its continued work at Arris.
Apple wants to sue Lancaster for violating Trade Defense and California Uniform Trade Law, as well as violating a written contract. Apple demands a trial by jury, restitution, coercive relief and punitive damages.
The full report on AppleInsider is worth reading. You can also find the court document on Scribd.
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