Recently Filed Cases

On June 10, 2015, Lynx Systems Developers Inc. (“Lynx”) sued Zebra Enterprise Solutions Corp. (“Zebra”) in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts for a number of claims including misappropriation of trade secrets, breach of contract, and fraud. The dispute between the two parties stemmed from a joint venture the parties engaged in to build a system that would track NFL football players’ actions in real time using hardware installed in players’ shoulder pads. The business relationship between the parties disintegrated and the parties then developed competing tracking systems independently. After Zebra won a contract with the NFL, Lynx brought the initial suit in Massachusetts District Court.

Last week, in response to the complaint, Zebra filed a motion to dismiss the suit in Massachusetts District Court and on August 20, 2015, brought a new complaint against Lynx in Santa Clara County Superior Court in Santa Clara, California. Zebra’s complaint pleads for declaratory relief of no (1) trade secret misappropriation, (2) breach of contract, (3) interference with existing and advantageous business relationships, (4) fraud, (5) breach of fiduciary duty, (6) unfair competition or unfair or deceptive acts, (7) unjust enrichment, (8) conversion, and (9) intentional interference with prospective contractual and advantageous business and economic relationships. The California case is filed under docket number 115CV284620.

Plaintiff “John Doe,” a project manager at Google, sued the company in California State Court, claiming they illegally require employees to sign broad confidentiality agreements. Doe filed the complaint in the California Superior Court of San Francisco County on December 20, 2016.

The agreements essentially state that Google employees cannot disclose any company information that is not generally known with anyone, including other Google employees. According to the complaint, these confidentiality agreements are contrary to state law because they can prevent employees from discussing their wages or disclosing information to government agencies. Furthermore, the complaint alleges that Google enforces its confidentiality policy through an internal program called “Stopleaks” which essentially asks employees to spy on each other and report any disclosure of confidential information.

Google defends the confidentiality agreements as an attempt to protect sensitive company information and maintains it is committed to maintaining an open culture within the company.

The case is Doe vs. Google Inc. et al., Docket No. CGC16556034 (Cal. Super. Ct. Dec. 20, 2016). A copy of Doe’s complaint can be found here: http://tsi.brooklaw.edu/cases/doe-vs-google-inc-et-al/filings/employee-sues-google-overbroad-confidentiality-agreements