shutterstock_577999513rarrarorro
11 December 2019PatentsSaman Javed

Apple fears ex-employees accused of IP theft will flee to China

Apple says it has “deep concerns” that two former employees, who are accused of stealing trade secrets from the iPhone maker, will try to flee the US before their trials if their locations are not monitored, according to Reuters.

At a hearing at the US District Court for the Northern District of California on Monday, December 9, US prosecutors argued that if either of the ex-employees fled to their home country, China, it would be difficult for US officials to secure their extradition for a trial.

Xiaolang Zhang and Jizhong Chen are accused of stealing trade secrets relating to Apple’s secretive self-driving car programme.

In a statement at the hearing, Apple said it believes Zhang and Chen will try to go to China if given the chance.

“Apple’s intellectual property is at the core of our innovation and growth. Zhang and Chen’s continued participation in these proceedings is necessary to ensure a final determination of the facts, and we have deep concerns they will not see this through if given the opportunity,” Apple said.

In July 2018, US officials arrested Zhang at the San Jose airport, after he allegedly stole trade secrets before disclosing that he was leaving Apple to go and work for a Chinese competitor.

Then, in January this year, US prosecutors filed a criminal complaint against Chen, claiming that they had “probable cause to believe” that Chen had also stolen IP, as reported by WIPR.

Chen was allegedly seen by another Apple employee (who was not named) taking “suspicious, wide-angled” photographs within the Apple workspace.

Additionally, prosecutors alleged Chen had taken more than 2,000 Apple files containing  “manuals, schematics, diagrams and photographs of computer screens showing pages in Apple’s secure databases” with intent to share them.

Both men have been released on bail, and their locations are being monitored.

On Monday, attorney Daniel Olmos, who represents Chen and Zhang, said the men had family reasons to visit China and had shown no signs of violating their pre-trial conditions so far.

“This is not an espionage case,” Olmos said. The government “is not requesting detention, but they are requesting essentially indefinitely location monitoring”.

Did you enjoy reading this story?  Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox.

Today's top stories:

Nike accuses Fleet Feet of trying to 'silence' ad campaign and appeal

Toymaker to appeal Lego injunction at Fed Circuit

Kardashian sues ‘vampire facial’ doctor for misuse of image

Already registered?

Login to your account

To request a FREE 2-week trial subscription, please signup.
NOTE - this can take up to 48hrs to be approved.

Two Weeks Free Trial

For multi-user price options, or to check if your company has an existing subscription that we can add you to for FREE, please email Adrian Tapping at atapping@newtonmedia.co.uk


More on this story

article
31 January 2019   The FBI has accused an Apple employee of attempting to steal trade secrets related to the company’s self-driving car project.
article
3 January 2020   Software company Workday has sued Washington State University to stop it from disclosing trade secrets to a market research company.