General
June 17, 2018
3 minutes read

6 Fitbit Employees charged with stealing trade secrets by wearables company Jawbone

Several employees of major wearable technology device maker Fitbit have been sued by another player in the wearables space, Jawbone…

Several employees of major wearable technology device maker Fitbit have been sued by another player in the wearables space, Jawbone which was once valued at a huge $3 Billion but recently fell into hassles and has been undergoing liquidation since last year amidst falling into revenue and growth issues for alleged stealing of trade secrets and confidential R&D materials before leaving the company to join Fitbit which is a violation of confidentiality agreements as stated by the company.

Jawbone alleges that the 6 employees who were working at the company before receiving job offers from Fitbit took with them confidential documents which included internal financial presentations, design specs for new products, market study copies and also pricing and supplier lists which was reportedly handed over to Fitbit and was illegally used by the company.

This legal dispute doesn’t represent the first time Jawbone brought several accusations against Fitbit as the company also sued it 3 years ago for alleged theft of its trade secrets and 300,000 confidential files, This time the court ruled in Fitbit’s favor and another dispute involving patent infringement was later settled.

This case between the current wearable technology device maker Fitbit and Jawbone which marketed its products as part of the Internet of things platform but has now stopped production amidst running into several financial and legal issues will now have to be settled in court with the employees reportedly facing up to 10 years incarceration if convicted.

Jawbone which raised over $900 million before its liquidation and current issues has now spun off a new unit dubbed “Jawbone Health” which will provide several medical devices and services, Fitbit went public in 2015 with an IPO which raised $730 million at an over $4 Billion valuation but the company’s stock has currently fallen to a price of just over $7 a share giving the company a current market cap of $1.73 Billion as of writing.