Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NYSE:AMD) filed a lawsuit against three of its former managers and one former vice-president over allegedly coping 100,000 files. The employees, who used to work for a plant in Boxborough, MA have since left the company to work for NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA).
The lawsuit was filed on Monday at the U.S. Court District of Massachussetts against Robert Feldstein, Manoo Desai, Richard Hagen, and Nicolas Kociuk. Feldstein was the former vice president. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NYSE:AMD) claims the former employees copied over 100,000 confidential documents and trade secrets. They want to recover all their files and the court already ordered a short-term restraining order that prevents them from ordering the preservation of any copies of AMD materials they have and the computers or devices they own. The restraining order also prevents them from sharing any secrets regarding AMD and their confidential information.
Last summer, Feldstein left his position with AMD after he helped secure some major contracts for the next generation game consoles like Sony Corporation (NYSE:SNE) Playstation, Nintendo Co., Ltd (TYO:7974)’s Wii U, and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s XBox. After he left, AMD says they uncovered proof that the former employees transferred the files to an external device a few days before they left the company.
AMD added, “The volume of materials that these three defendants collectively transferred to storage devices, each of which is unaccounted for, as they left to work for AMD’s competitor exceeds 100,000 electronic files.” They also mentioned this included confidential files, trade secrets, and proprietary.
The filing also specifically points out that three extremely confident files, including two licensing agreements with important customers and an outline document that shared strategic ideas for Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NYSE:AMD)’s licensing, were all transferred. What’s more is if NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) gets these files, they will have an unfair advantage, should they attempt to use it or publicly disclose this sensitive information.