AliphCom Inc. d/b/a Jawbone v. Fitbit Inc. et al.

On October 13 2015, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Harold Kahn issued a preliminary injunction, ordering five Fitbit employees who had formerly worked at Jawbone to return Jawbone confidential information they took before leaving. Judge Kahn agreed with Jawbone that the information taken constituted confidential information and that these employees likely breached their confidentiality agreements with Jawbone when they provided the confidential information to their new employer, Fitbit.

This is the first opinion in the ongoing legal battle between rival wearable fitness tracker makers, Fitbit and Jawbone. Since May 2015, Jawbone has filed three complaints against Fitbit, and in turn, Fitbit has filed two complaints against Jawbone.

In May 2015, Jawbone owner Aliphcom Corp. sued rival Fitbit after its announcement of its initial public offering in California State Court. In an effort to “decimate” Jawbone, Jawbone alleged that Fitbit poached its employees and stole its trade secrets. Per the initial Complaint, Jawbone alleged that Fitbit contacted roughly 30 percent of its workforce in early 2015 and of those contacted, at least five employees had left Jawbone to work for Fitbit. Before leaving, Jawbone alleged that these employees downloaded sensitive information – which included business plans, research, product plans, services, customer lists and data – stored it on thumb drives, and then provided it to their new employer, Fitbit.

In June 2015, a week before Fitbit’s IPO, Jawbone filed a second lawsuit in California federal court, alleging that each of Fitbit’s products infringed at least one of three Jawbone patents. Then, in July 2015, Jawbone petitioned the U.S. International Trade Commission to block imports of Fitbit’s products, alleging patent infringement. In August 2015, the ITC posted a short notice online stating that the agency will investigate whether Fitbit has been importing infringing fitness tracking devices.

In response, on September 3rd, Fitbit Inc. accused Jawbone of patent infringement in a suit filed in Delaware federal court and then on September 8th, Fitbit filed another patent infringement suit in California federal court.

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