Apple settles with ex-employee who allegedly passed on company secrets

Apple has reached a settlement with a former employee, who allegedly leaked information about unreleased products and features to a media contact. In return, the ex-employee would receive positive attention for his start-up, Apple claimed.

According to legal documents that The Verge has seen, the settlement was approved by the judge earlier this week. As part of the settlement, the former Advanced Materials Lead and Product Design Architect will pay an undisclosed amount to Apple and may not “disclose, communicate, transfer, discuss or use any confidential information.”

Apple filed a lawsuit against the man in a San Jose court last year. The company claimed the ex-employee worked closely with a media source in late 2018 and that they co-ordinated stealing and publishing trade secrets. It would be details about unreleased hardware, future announcements and upcoming features of Apple products.

The collaboration with the reporter, according to the claims, continued and even strengthened after the man left Apple, in November 2019. On his last day, he is said to have put a large amount of classified documents from Apple’s corporate network on his personal computer. This information would also have helped him work for his start-up. Apple claims that taking away the trade secrets has sapped the morale of the teams working on the products and favored competitors.