Tech espionage? Microsoft claims former employee spied for startup |
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Tech espionage? Microsoft claims former employee spied for startup
Update, Nov. 17, 2009: Microsoft settles with former employee accused of spying
Microsoft says a startup founder took a job at the Redmond company under false pretenses, then used his inside access to download confidential documents for a patent complaint his company has since filed against major computer makers.
The company makes the allegations in a lawsuit filed in King Couny Superior Court in Seattle. It says the former employee, Ancora Technologies Inc. founder Miki Mullor, wrote in his October 2005 Microsoft employment application that Ancora was out of business. The suit alleges that Mullor didn't disclose when hired that he believed one of Microsoft's anti-piracy technologies, known System Locked Preinstallation (SLP), infringed on an Ancora patent.
RELATED DOCUMENTS
Microsoft's lawsuit against Mullor: PDF, 33 pages.
Ancora's lawsuit against Dell, HP and Toshiba: PDF, 15 pages
"This lawsuit is about protecting our patent rights from being infringed by HP, Dell and Toshiba," the company's site says. "This is not David vs. Goliath. This is David vs. three Goliaths."
If that's the case, it's now four Goliaths.
Microsoft's suit, filed last week, alleges that Mullor, as a Microsoft employee, downloaded a series of internal documents with "no bearing" on his job in the days and months leading up to the Ancora lawsuit. The documents dealt with subjects including the SLP and the upcoming Windows 7 operating system, according to Microsoft's complaint.
"The majority of the documents identified to date consist of communications (or drafts thereof) between Microsoft and its OEMs regarding pre-activation of the Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 operating systems on the OEMs' computers," Microsoft's complaint says. The company alleges that Mullor later ran a series of file-wiping programs to hide what he had done.
We've sent an email message to Ancora, hoping to get Mullor's response to the Microsoft complaint. We've also left a message for Mark Cantor, one of the lawyers representing Ancora in the patent case. A story on the Seattle P-I's site quotes Cantor saying that the King County case is "simply a retaliatory lawsuit by Microsoft to get the patent case transferred to Seattle."
According to the complaint, Mullor was still a Microsoft employee when Ancora filed the suit against the PC makers. Microsoft says it terminated Mullor's employment in September. The company has separately intervened in Ancora's patent lawsuit to defend its technology and the PC makers against the patent-infringement claims.
[Update: Former Microsoft employee responds to spying allegations.]
Here's the kicker: Microsoft asserts it should be given a royalty-free license to use Ancora's technology, citing language in Mullor's employment contract in which he was asked to disclose any patents, and agreed to assign certain patent rights to the company.
So who is Miki Mullor? This online biography identifies him as the chairman and founder of Ancora. The site notes that he worked most recently as a Microsoft senior business development manager for Windows Strategy and M&A, in addition to serving as a program manager responsible for developing the Windows Smart Card framework.
His past experience, according to the bio, came at companies including Blue Pumpkin Software, Startacare Inc. and Hiho Technologies. Both the site and Mullor's 2005 Microsoft employment application identify him as a former Israeli military intelligence officer.
Ancora's lawsuit lists an address in Sherman Oaks, Calif., but other reports identify the company as based in Sammamish. A LinkedIn profile for Mullor puts him in the Seattle area, saying he has been owner of a firm called 10th Street Consulting since September. That firm's site lists an address in Calabasas, Calif.
More details as they're available.
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