An executive asks and is given for confidential sales information, marked as “confidential” and with a request not to distribute it.
Not long afterwards, the executive quits and takes a similar position with a competitor of his former employer.
Shortly after that, on his own initiative, he gives the confidential information to his new employer.
That gets him fired by his new company — and prosecuted for criminal theft of trade secrets by the U.S. Attorney’s office.
In a nutshell, that’s what allegedly happened with Atul Malhotra, who has been indicted for giving IBM confidential information to HP. See the write-up in Wired magazine and the charging document filed in court.
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See also: (list is automatically generated)
- Employee noncompetition clause invalidated because linked to stock-option grant, not to confidential information
- Commission structure in employment agreement results in $4.1 billion judgment for fired employee
- Protecting confidential information — three rules: Lock it up; label it; ‘safe sex’
- Marking of confidential information
- Affiliate confidential information – protected or not?
