Paul Jacobson

Yahoo! has sued a start-up competitor, Mforma, and seven former employees for allegedly stealing confidential information from Yahoo!.  CNET News.com has reported as follows:

"A California state judge has given Yahoo its first legal win against a start-up that Yahoo sued for stealing trade secrets.



Yahoo sued San Francisco-based wireless content provider MForma earlier this week, contending that a group of former Yahoo employees left the company and took proprietary source-code and business information to their new jobs.



A judge on Wednesday granted Yahoo's request for a temporary restraining order, barring MForma employees from using or disclosing any proprietary Yahoo information in their work."

Yahoo!'s restraining order appears analogous to what we call an interim interdict in South Africa and which, if the procedure is similar to ours, would be a precursor to further proceedings in due course.  As distasteful as it may seem, often a company's only feasible course of action is to launch proceedings against a competitor and even former employees if confidential information and trade secrets are misappropriated.  Another important consideration is that if a company is slow to act against such unscrupulous employees, it may become a target for similar action by future employees and even competitors.  If this has happened to you (or is happening to you), consider the total impact it may have on your business going forward and it will impact materially, seriously consider taking action as quickly as possible.

For more on this story as it develops, take a look at Google News.

(via Buys Inc)

Technorati Tags: Mforma, unlawful competition, restraining order, Yahoo!