Fitbit, one of the world's largest fitness-tracking/wearable companies, has found itself in hot water over a dispute that first reared its head in 2015. On June 14, six current and former employees from the company were charged with stealing trade secrets from Jawbone and giving them to Fitbit.
The six employees in question previously worked at Jawbone before moving to Fitbit, and while doing so, reportedly took more than 300,000 confidential files with them. Jawbone was a former competitor of Fitbit's, but the company went out of business in July 2017 and is still in the liquidation process.
Jawbone initially sued Fitbit for the actions of these employees in 2015, but at that time, the suit was ruled in Fitbit's favor. A while later in December of last year, Fitbit and Jawbone decided to settle.
In a statement released to The Verge, Fitbit said:
In a trade secret misappropriation case brought by Jawbone in the International Trade Commission in 2016 that involved these same individuals, a federal administrative law judge during a nine-day trial on the merits found that no Jawbone trade secrets were misappropriated or used in any Fitbit product, feature or technology.
It remains to be seen if the six employees will be convicted of these charges, but if they are, each could face as much as 10 years in prison.
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