Jawbone Sues Fitbit Over Trade Secrets, Employees

Two of the wearable tech market’s biggest rivals are headed to court. Jawbone has filed a lawsuit against Fitbit for “systematically plundering” its employees and confidential company information.

Jawbone alleges that Fitbit recruited roughly 30% of Jawbone’s staff since early 2015. The compliant details how former Jawbone employees were said to have forwarded highly sensitive intellectual property to personal email accounts before they left for Fitbit. Among them is a product design engineer “who had access to every aspect of the mechanical and industrial design of Jawbone’s products.”

The lawsuit comes as Fitbit prepares for its IPO.

“The interesting thing here is that we’re talking about two companies – both private at present – that play in the same arena yet (soon) by different rules. Fitbit’s upcoming IPO, we suspect, is one of the main inflection points for the suit given the need to disclose previously non-public information in its SEC filing,” commented 451 Research Associate Analyst Ryan Martin.Short of establishing precedent for future proceedings, the case could also serve as a test bed for others mulling over similar legal actions. The wrench in all this is that Fitbit has sold more hardware; Jawbone has superior software.”