The Blubber

Nvidia, $NVDA, is being sued after an engineer during a video conference call with his former employer Valeo shared his screen showing a file that contained data he had stolen from his old job, per Bloomberg.

During a video conference call with his former employer, a Nvidia Corp. engineer inadvertently disclosed an instance of intellectual property theft. The engineer, previously convicted of infringing business secrets in Germany, had shared his screen, exposing a file containing robocar technology data stolen from his former company, Valeo SE.

Subsequently, Valeo filed a lawsuit against Nvidia in California. This event highlights the fierce competition in the autonomous-driving market, with companies like Apple, Tesla, and Waymo accusing former employees of taking self-driving secrets to rival firms. Despite Nvidia's claim of having no interest in Valeo's code or trade secrets, the lawsuit persists, underscoring the challenges and legal battles in the race for autonomous-driving dominance.

“Valeo participants on the videoconference call immediately recognized the source code and took a screenshot before Mr. Moniruzzaman was alerted of his error,” according to the complaint. “By then it was too late to cover his tracks.”

“Nvidia has no interest in Valeo’s code or its alleged trade secrets and has taken prompt concrete steps to protect your client’s asserted rights,” a German law firm representing the Silicon Valley company wrote in a June 2022 letter to Valeo attorneys that was filed with the lawsuit.