Intel sued a former Oregon employee Friday, alleging he took trade secrets with him when he bolted for Microsoft and used the information to gain an advantage in subsequent business negotiations with Intel.
The engineer, Varun Gupta, worked for Intel for a decade before leaving for Microsoft in January 2020, according to the suit. He allegedly loaded Intel trade secrets onto two USB drives before quitting and later accessed them on his Microsoft-issued laptop.
Gupta could not immediately be reached for comment.
Intel and Microsoft are longtime partners and, increasingly, rivals as Microsoft develops its own chip engineering capabilities. Microsoft is preparing to open a big new engineering hub in Hillsboro, near Intel’s Oregon research factories, and has hired a former Intel vice president to help lead it.
In this case, though, the litigation indicates Intel and Microsoft worked together to investigate the incident.
Intel’s complaint claims that Gupta had denied knowing where the one of the USB drives was, but later turned it over to Microsoft for analysis. He claimed to have discarded a second USB drive that allegedly contained Intel secrets, according to the litigation.
The suit asserts that Microsoft determined Gupta had plugged the USB drives into his Microsoft-issued laptop.
“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 alleged in Friday’s filing.
Intel’s complaint suggests its marketing and engineering team became concerned Gupta might have taken trade secrets while conducting business negotiations with him after he had let for Microsoft. An internal investigation concluded that he had transferred 3,900 Intel documents to a USB drive on his last day at Intel, according to the complaint.
Intel seeks unspecified damages in the suit, attorney fees and an injunction preventing Gupta from using or disclosing the material on the USB drive. It filed the suit Friday in U.S. District Court in Portland.
“Intel has invested billions of dollars in the development of the intellectual property critical to its success in some of the most competitive industries in the world,” Intel said in a written statement Monday. “We place great faith and trust in our current and former employees, but we have an obligation to protect our intellectual property and other proprietary information, and we will not hesitate to act to prevent their misappropriation.”
-- Mike Rogoway | mrogoway@oregonian.com | twitter: @rogoway | 503-294-7699
The Link LonkFebruary 08, 2021 at 11:21PM
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Intel sues Oregon engineer who left for Microsoft, allegedly taking trade secrets with him - OregonLive
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