Skip to main content

Paypal v. Google: a tawdry tale of trade secret misappropriation



Google and its poached Paypal employees got sued for trade secret misappropriation yesterday, but we didn't know the dirty details until now. A peek at PayPal's complaint reveals there's a bit more to the story. Apparently, Paypal and Google were in talks last year to use PayPal for payments in the Android Market. Osama Bedier was in charge of those negotiations for PayPal in October of 2010, when the deal was supposed to close, but was allegedly interviewing for a mobile payment position at Google at the same time (holy conflict of interest, Batman!). The complaint claims that Bedier initially rebuffed El Goog's advances, told PayPal of the job offer and professed that he would stay, but jumped ship a month later (bringing some PayPal coworkers with him) after being recruited by Stephanie Tilenius and the almighty dollar. Once it hired Osama, Google reportedly put the brakes on the PayPal deal and created Google Wallet. Then Google, Bedier, and Tilenius got slapped with a lawsuit. A brief rundown of the legal claims awaits you after the break.

In California, information is a protected trade secret if it's economically valuable, isn't generally known, and its owner has made reasonable efforts to keep it secret. Additionally, contracts preventing employee poaching are enforceable in Cali to the extent that they're needed to protect trade secrets possessed by those employees. PayPal's plans and mobile payment strategies would certainly be valuable to its competitors, and it keeps its institutional info classified with employee confidentiality clauses and customer non-disclosure agreements. So, PayPal appears to have a pretty strong argument for trade secret protection, and its breach of contract claims against Bedier and Tilenius for soliciting PayPal employees are looking good too.

Of course, that assumes Osama, in fact, used (and is using) his knowledge of PayPal's mobile payment plans to create Google Wallet -- and that he breached his duty of loyalty when he got himself and others hired by El Goog instead of doing the Android deal. And, if the complaint is to be believed, Ms. Tilenius and Google are on the hook for inducing him to do these dastardly deeds. PayPal paints quite the picture of corporate intrigue, but it'll be interesting to see how the folks from Mountain View respond. The real question is, can Google Wallet pay legal fees?
TechCrunch
sourceComplaint [PDF]
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Manual for Alienware M11x with Sandy Bridge confirms NVIDIA GT540M graphics

If the previous Alienware M11x R3 spec leak got you all giddy, then we have some good news for you: according to a manual dug up by one of our eagle-eyed readers, it appears that this year's M11x refresh will indeed be coming with second-gen Core i5 ULV and Core i7 ULV options, along with a faster DDR3 bus (1333MHz instead of 800MHz), a higher-res webcam (2MP instead of 1.3MP), an HD TrueLife LCD, and optional 3G / 4G mobile broadband. But of course, the real meat on this laptop is its graphics card, which turns out to be an NVIDIA GeForce GT540M with either 1Gb or 2GB of dedicated memory -- not bad for a laptop of this size. Unsurprisingly, no dates or prices are mentioned here, but given the early start of inventory clearance, it shouldn't be long before Round Rock reveals all.  Dell (ZIP)
Post a Comment
Read more

IBM shows off Smarter Traveler traffic prediction tool

Traffic alerts on GPS devices may be old hat at this point, but there's obviously still plenty of room for improvement, and IBM now says it's managed to do just that with its new "Smarter Traveler" traffic prediction tool. Developed with the help of UC Berkeley's transportation group and the California Department of Transportation, the tool relies on predictive analytics software, GPS monitoring and sensors already on the roads to not only offer alerts, but build a model of each person's usual commuter route. Once the system is trained a bit, commuters are able to check out what's effectively a forecast of their entire route before they even leave the house, rather than simply be alerted to traffic problems before it's too late to avoid them. Head on past for the complete press release, and a quick video explanation of how it works. IBM, Caltrans and UC Berkeley Aim to Help Commuters Avoid Congested Roadways Before their Trip Begins First-of-a-K...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo delayed to Q3, Arc and Play facing limited supply due to Japanese quake

There hasn't been much good news coming out of Japan lately and this sadly keeps up with the unhappy trend. Sony Ericsson has officially bumped the broad launch (it's already available in limited quantities) of its Xperia Neo handset to at least July, explaining the delay as the result of "supply chain disruptions." Additionally, the Xperia Arc and Play devices, two other members of the company's new Android Gingerbread family, will be available in smaller volume than expected, at least for the near term. We guess that might go some way to explaining why the Xperia Play failed to reach some UK carriers in time for its April 1st launch date. Skip past the break for a statement from Sony Ericsson, who promises to be more explicit about the situation when it delivers its latest quarterly results on April 19th. As Sony Ericsson continues to assess the impact of the situation in Japan on its business, we have communicated to our operator customers and dis...
Post a Comment
Read more