Stefan Mileschin

AMD has won a rather unusual legal battle involving a small gang of AMD defectors who gave in to the dark side of the Force and joined Nvidia.

AMD won a court order banning the former employees from disclosing trade secrets or soliciting their former colleagues to change sides and join Nvidia.AMD accused ex-employees of borrowing sensitive company documents when they cleared out their desks and headed over the Nvidia.

They allegedly transferred more than 100,000 files pertaining to AMD’s GPU business in the days leading up to their departure. AMD also claims that the employees tried to recruit co-workers to leave AMD, reports Businessweek.

US District Jidge Timothy Hillman said in his order that AMD could win the lawsuit, filed in January. He described AMD’s circumstantial evidence as compelling, which justified AMD’s request for a preliminary injunction.

“They all made copies of confidential AMD information before leaving AMD, retained that information, and immediately began working at a significant competitor. AMD therefore has a reasonable likelihood of success on the merits with regard to its claims for misappropriation of trade secrets,” Hillman said.

Although the seditious ex-employees joined Nvidia, arguably AMD’s biggest competitor, Nvidia itself is not a defendant in the lawsuit, at least not yet.

http://news.techeye.net/business/ex-...-trade-secrets