Apple has settled a lawsuit against former designer Simon Lancaster, which the company accused him of stealing trade secrets and sharing them with a reporter. The company filed the lawsuit in March 2021, and a judge this week granted a settlement order.
Despite more than a decade at Apple, Lancaster abused his position and trust within the company to systematically disseminate Apple's sensitive trade secret information for personal gain," Apple said in its lawsuit. He used his seniority to obtain internal meetings and documents outside his job responsibilities that contained Apple's trade secrets, which he made available to his outside media reporters.
According to Apple's lawsuit, Lancaster and the unnamed reporter first approached in November 2018, and the company accused Lancaster of sharing unannounced hardware, unannounced feature changes, and Details of future product announcements. Apple also said Lancaster downloaded confidential documents that would "benefit his new employer" Arris Composites before leaving the company in November 2019. (According to his LinkedIn, Lancaster left Arris in 2021).
As part of the settlement, Lancaster will make an undisclosed sum to Apple and is prohibited from "disclosing, or communicating in any way without Apple's express prior written authorization. , transfer, discuss or use any confidential information," Apple and Lancaster did not immediately respond to requests for comment.