Apple is filing legal action against its former material leader, Simon Lancaster, for allegedly leaking trade secrets to the media. The lawsuit accuses Lancaster of abusing his “position and trust within the company to systematically disseminate confidential information from Apple’s trade secrets in an effort to obtain personal benefits”.
As first reported by AppleInsider, the court document detailing the case was released on Thursday. Lancaster allegedly used his senior role at Apple to “gain access to internal meetings and out-of-scope documents” from his work as a material leader at Apple. In fact, on his last day at Apple, November 1, 2019, he reportedly downloaded a “substantial number” of confidential Apple documents.
Lancaster left Apple after a decade to join materials research and development company Arris, which is actually an Apple supplier. The trade secrets he stole from Apple continued to benefit him in his new position at Arris, the report explains. Lancaster described the role at Arris as scratching an “initial itch”.
But things get even more interesting when the media aspect of this story comes on the scene. The lawsuit explains that the reporter first contacted Lancaster in November 2018, a year before leaving Apple. Apple’s trade secrets were reportedly exchanged throughout 2018-2019.
In the spring of 2019, Lancaster expressed to the Correspondent in profane terms his discontent with Apple. His discontent, in information and belief, was based on a story published that day that reported a rumor that Apple would produce a new hardware product. Shortly thereafter, Lancaster asked the Correspondent to investigate the content of this story because “it could mean problems for my [Lancaster’s] start. “The correspondent replied,” I’ll see what I can find out. “
Less than two weeks later, Lancaster communicated to a third party that the Correspondent had committed to publish an article on Lancaster’s startup if it obtained $ 1 million in funding. Based on information and belief, the Correspondent agreed to publish that article in exchange for Lancaster’s continued misappropriation of Apple’s trade secrets.
The anonymous media that used the information in several articles and attributed the information to an Apple “source”. The 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 process says:
The trade secrets that Lancaster stole and sent to the Correspondent for publication included details of unreleased Apple hardware products, unannounced feature changes to existing hardware products, and announcements of future products, all of which Apple keeps close at hand.
Going forward, Apple warns in the process that Lancaster remains a “continuing threat of embezzlement” due to its continued work at Arris.
Through the lawsuit, Apple wants Lancaster to be charged with violations of the California Trade Secret Defense Act and the California Uniform Trade Secret Act, as well as breach of a written contract. Apple seeks a jury trial, restitution, precautionary measure and punitive damages.
The full report was published in AppleInsider worth reading. You can also find the court document on Scribd.
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