Amber Neely
Apple has settled its lawsuit against Simon Lancaster, a former materials lead who allegedly stole trade secrets and shared them with a journalist.
As part of the settlement, Lancaster will pay an undisclosed sum to Apple. He is also barred from disclosing any confidential information related to Apple without Apple's express written consent.
The settlement, spotted by The Verge was approved by a judge in early November.
Apple initially sued Lancaster in 2021, alleging that he'd sold trade secrets to an unnamed publication in exchange for favorable coverage of a startup.
Lancaster had worked with Apple for more than a decade. He used his seniority to attend meetings outside the scope of his work, where he allegedly learned about yet unreleased Apple products.
On his last day, he downloaded a "substantial number" of confidential Apple documents from Apple's corporate network onto his personal computer.
He shared a confidential document with an unnamed correspondent, which Apple refers to as "Project X."
Nine days after announcing his exit, Lancaster requested access to documents pertaining to two other projects he didn't belong to. He sent that data to the correspondent as well.
After departing Apple, Lancaster congratulated the correspondent about the success of an article that disclosed Apple secrets.
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12 Comments
This country has become too liberal on criminals. Such example make employees fear of no real consequences. Anyone can steal and pass sell trade secrets to someone or foreign competitors. Over decades, this is how American innovations ended up in Chinese hands.
People today are just dumb. If you’re going to play spy/secret agent/turn coat to your employer, at least use some trade craft. Be sneaky and careful.
Over a decade he worked at Apple! WTF! Decimate your career, and for what?! I agree jail time! He stole from his employer!
It seems quite likely this is related to the Steve Jobs archive that is currently built. There, they might want to control/curate his story. I only hope, they not only want to control the perspective on Steve Jobs.