Although intellectual property and corporate secrets are a matter reserved for any company, known is the special suspicion with which Manzana handles your information.
The bitten apple company claims that some of its trade secrets were being sold to journalists by Simon Lancaster, a former product design architect, who among his portfolio has sketches of some MacBook Pros and other products.
Apple’s leaking of confidential data ended in a lawsuit against the designer who released the information
Apple filed a demand against Simon Lancaster, a former product design architect for the company, accused of trading corporate secrets and details about Apple products not commercially available to an anonymous reporter.
Lancaster apparently did this in order to further his career, after leaving Apple in 2019.
The designer worked on the 13-inch and 15-inch Macbook Pro with Touch Bar, along with other undiscovered Apple products and a series of more than 40 patents, according to a Press release announcing his arrival at Arris Composites, after leaving Apple.
The lawsuit was revealed by Appleinsider. According to the court record, Lancaster and his allied reporter began communicating in 2018, with a focus on the possibility of obtaining information. Lancaster contacted his correspondent later, in the first half of 2019, asking him to investigate rumors of a possible Apple product that could spell trouble for your startup.
The lawsuit claims Lancaster bragged to a third party shortly after that conversation, claiming that his media contact would be writing a story about his personal business if he reached $ 1 million in funding.
In October 2019, Lancaster informed his correspondent that he planned to quit Apple, providing secret information about Apple products and asking if they wanted to write a story about a 12-year-old Apple design veteran who was leaving for an amazing startup. Presumably, negotiating this outreach move hinged on a key Lancaster step: providing additional information about a project not disclosed to the public, which Apple refers to as Project X.
The presentation of the designer’s resignation materialized on October 15 of that same year and after that, his contact with the aforementioned reporter continued active. The following day, Lancaster allegedly leaked documents that were requested of him prior to enforcing his departure from the company.
Apple discharges after filing the lawsuit
Digging deeper into the case, Apple shared its impressions in an interview with The Verge, noting that Tens of thousands of Apple employees work tirelessly every day on new products, services, and features in the hopes of delighting our customers and empowering them to change the world. Stealing ideas and confidential information undermines your efforts, hurting Apple and our customers. The spokeswoman for the company founded by Jobs and Wozniak also commented that We take this individual’s deliberate theft of our trade secrets, the violation of our ethics and policies, all for personal gain, very seriously. We will do our best to protect the innovations we hold dear.
As stated by Apple in the lawsuit, Lancaster attended a specific meeting on the sensitive and aforementioned Project X, even though it was recommended not to do so, after having submitted its notice of resignation. Supposedly, he logged in to get more information that would be shared with his contact in the press.
The official termination of Lancaster’s functions at Apple was completed on November 1, 2019. Until the moments prior to the expiration of this period, the designer would have used his Apple credentials to download, from a location outside the company’s facilities , confidential information that would be useful to your new employer, as charged by the plaintiff company.
Lancaster served Apple as a leader in advanced materials since 2008 and later as a product design architect. Following his resignation, he joined the ranks of Arris Composites, a materials design company, as their head of consumer products.
