Fleet telematics and technology company Samsara has settled a trade secret dispute with a former employee who left to join competitor Motive. Under the terms of the deal, the former employee will pay an undisclosed sum and accept permanent restrictions after breaching the employment agreement.
A Thursday filing with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California showed a stipulated permanent injunction requiring former Samsara employee, William Reich, to adhere to terms outlined in his “Employee Invention Assignment and Confidentiality Agreement,” which was signed when he began working for the San Francisco-based company in 2022.
Reich, a former senior manager in enterprise field sales with Samsara (NYSE: IOT), is required to “maintain the confidentiality of all Samsara Proprietary Information,” and “never disclose such Proprietary Information to any third party, including any future employer or his former employer Motive and/or any of Motive’s employees, for any reason whatsoever.”
A separate statement from Samsara said Reich has also agreed to “pay a substantial sum for breaching his employment agreement.” Reich has also resigned from Motive.
“Samsara remains committed to vigorously protecting its intellectual property rights and enforcing its rights against the misappropriation of its confidential information and trade secrets, including against Motive,” said Adam Eltouky, chief legal officer at Samsara, in a news release. “We will always take decisive action to safeguard the innovations that power our platform and serve our customers.”
Samsara alleged in a 2024 complaint that Reich downloaded “a large volume of Samsara trade secrets and confidential information to a currently unknown location in the days before resigning” to go work for Motive. The items downloaded were said to include product offerings in development along with sensitive customer data.
The complaint said the actions amounted to “theft of Samsara’s trade secrets and breaches of his ongoing contractual obligations.”
“In short, they would provide a former employee like Reich an unfair advantage in competing with Samsara in his new role and would provide a competitor with a blueprint of how to unfairly compete against Samsara,” the complaint read.
This is just one recent development in the extensive legal disputes involving the two fleet technology companies. Motive was recently cleared in a patent infringement lawsuit brought by Samsara, although Samsara secured a $30.3 million judgment against the company earlier this year following claims of false advertising.
Samsara filed a separate patent infringement lawsuit against Motive on Monday.
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