SAN JOSE, CA — Six current and former employees of the FitBit Inc. fitness tracker company are due to appear before a U.S. magistrate in San Jose on July 9 on charges of possessing trade secrets stolen from a competitor.

The present and former Fitbit workers previously worked for Jawbone, a San Francisco-based electronics and fitness tracking company run by AliphCom, and allegedly possessed the trade secrets after they took new jobs with San Francisco-based Fitbit in 2014 and 2015. AliphCom went out of business last year and some of its employees regrouped in a new startup called Jawbone Health, focusing on medical devices.

The six defendants were indicted by a federal grand jury in San Jose on Friday. Their initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Virginia DeMarchi on July 9 will be for a reading of the charges and identification of their defense lawyers. >>Also See: Elon Musk Announces Thousands Of Layoffs At Tesla

They are each charged with between one and six counts of possession of stolen trade secrets. If they are convicted, each count carries a possible maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. AliphCom previously named five of the six criminal defendants as defendants in a civil trade-secrets-theft lawsuit it filed against Fitbit in San Francisco Superior Court in 2015.

AliphCom and Fitbit also filed several federal patent infringement lawsuits and counterclaims against one another in federal court.

Both the Superior Court and federal lawsuits were settled in a confidential agreement in December 2017 and were dismissed by the judges presiding over the cases. The criminal investigation took two years, according to U.S. Homeland Security Department Special Agent Ryan Spradlin.