Apple sues former employee for stealing trade secrets and turning them over to a media correspondent
Just before leaving Apple in October 2019, Lancaster allegedly turned over to his media contact documents labeled “Confidential” that the company called “Project X”. Apple also accuses Lancaster of downloading a “substantial number” of confidential Apple documents to his personal computer on his last day at the company. The suit states that the trade secrets that Simon passed along to his media correspondent included “details of unreleased Apple hardware products, unannounced feature changes to existing hardware products, and future product announcements, all of which Apple guards closely.”
Apple points out in court documents that the actions taken by the defendant hurts Apple in respect to its competitors. “With access to valuable Apple information, Apple’s competitors can anticipate Apple’s future course of action and attempt to degrade Apple’s hard-won position as a company at the forefront of innovation.” The company also goes on to say that “Maintaining this information as a trade secret is essential to Apple’s ability to compete in the computer hardware and software markets. These fields are characterized by rapid technological advances and intense competition. If an Apple competitor were to obtain details about Apple’s technology or related commercial information, that competitor could significantly harm Apple by using Apple’s own technology, know-how and other details about these products to compete directly with Apple without having to spend the capital and/or time that Apple invested in developing such technologies.”
