PayPal and eBay have filed a lawsuit against Google. According to International Business Times, the two companies filed the lawsuit last week claiming breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets in Google’s development of its new online business venture, Google Wallet.
PayPal and eBay claim that former employees of their companies that are now employed by Google were instrumental in the development of Google Wallet. PayPal and eBay claim that these former employees recruited former colleagues before the appropriate time had passed and used intellectual property belonging to their former employers while developing Google Wallet.
eBay and PayPal say that former employees in their companies took online payment information to Google and used this information to create Google Wallet. According to International Business Times, Google’s own contract says that new employees have to wait at least a year before recruiting former co-workers, so eBay and PayPal will likely be working to prove that a PayPal employee was recruited by a former colleague at Google before a year had passed in her employment with Google.
Interestingly, there is a class-action lawsuit currently being examined by the U.S. Justice Department that relates to these restrictions on recruiting in technology companies. Employees of Google, Apple, Adobe and others claim that pacts between the companies not to recruit each other’s employees has unfairly restricted compensation for the workers by the businesses. The class action was filed May 4. It will be interesting to see how the class-action employment lawsuit and the business litigation each get worked out.
Source:
Suit Alleges Google Wallet Pickpocketing PayPal (International Business Times)
