Google sues ex-engineer in Texas over leaked Pixel chip secrets
Technology
Google sues ex-engineer in Texas over leaked Pixel chip secrets
(Reuters) - Google has sued one of its former engineers in Texas federal court, accusing him of stealing trade secrets related to its chip designs and sharing them publicly on the internet.
The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday, said that Harshit Roy "touted his dominion" over the secrets in social media posts, tagging competitors and making threatening statements to the company including "I need to take unethical means to get what I am entitled to" and "remember that empires fall and so will you."
Roy did not respond to a request for comment on the complaint on Wednesday.
"After an investigation, we found that this former employee stole numerous documents, and we're pursuing legal action against them for the repeated and unauthorized disclosure of confidential company information," Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda said on Wednesday. "This behavior is something we will simply not tolerate."
Google hired Roy in 2020 to develop computer chips used in Google Pixel devices like smartphones. Google said in the lawsuit that Roy resigned in February and moved from Bangalore, India to the United States in August to attend a doctorate program at the University of Texas at Austin.
According to the complaint, Roy began posting confidential Google information to his X account later that month along with "subversive text" directed at the company, such as "don't expect me to adhere to any confidentiality agreement." The posts included photographs of internal Google documents with specifications for Pixel processing chips.
The lawsuit said that Roy ignored Google's takedown requests and has posted additional trade secrets to X and LinkedIn since October.
Google alleged that Roy tagged competitors Apple and Qualcomm in some of the posts, "presumably to maximize the potential harm of his disclosure."
Google's complaint also said that several news outlets have published stories with confidential details about Google's devices based on the information that Roy leaked.
Google asked the court for an unspecified amount of monetary damages and court orders blocking Roy from using or sharing its secrets.
The case is Google LLC v. Roy, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, No. 1:24-cv-01425.
For Google: Jason Storck and Matthew Gorman of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
For Roy: attorney information not yet available
