Apple sues ex-employee over alleged leaked secrets

Apple Inc. sued a former employee who worked at the company for more than a decade, claiming he shared its trade secrets with a media contact in exchange for favorable coverage of a startup he invested in.

Simon Lancaster is accused of serving as the reporter’s source of information, a role that allegedly deepened after he left Apple, and of sharing closely guarded details of unreleased hardware, unannounced feature changes and future product announcements, according to the complaint filed Thursday in federal court in San Jose, California.“The deceitful and indefensible release of these product details enabled by Lancaster’s misappropriation has undermined the morale of the teams that worked on the products and features in question,” according to Apple.

Lancaster isn’t the only former Apple employee accused of betraying the company. In 2019, Apple sued its former lead chip architect, Gerard Williams III, after he left and launched a startup. Williams, who is accused of poaching Apple employees, has claimed in court filings that the technology giant did the same to him.