Intel is suing one of its former employees, as noted in a report by The Oregonian. According to the allegations, Varun Gupta went to go work at Microsoft in January 2020, and when he did, he took some trade secrets with him.
The engineer loaded up two USB drives with intel from Intel, and then he went and plugged one of them into a Microsoft-issued laptop. And if you"re wondering how the folks at Intel knew this, it"s because Microsoft was the one that found out and told them, so the two companies are working together on this.
According to the legal filing, Gupta got rid of the second USB drive. The allegations accuse Gupta of storing some 3,900 documents on those drives.
"In his new role at Microsoft, Gupta used the confidential information and trade secrets he misappropriated from Intel, deploying that information in head-to-head negotiations with Intel concerning customized product design and pricing for significant volumes of Xeon processors," Intel wrote in the filing.
The lawsuit was filed on February 5 at the U.S. District Court in Portland. Intel hasn"t specified just how much it"s suing Gupta for in terms of damages, but it"s also seeking attorney fees and an injunction that will keep the engineer from disclosing what"s on the USB drive.