Advertisement Intel sues ex-engineer, says he stole company secrets Lawsuit surrounds 3D XPoint project Share Shares Copy Link Copy

On a dark September night, Intel said a man crept into its offices, logged in, woke up the computer and searched for a top secret file."3D XPoint," it was called. Part of something called Optane. The company had funneled more than $1 billion into it.What his managers didn't know, according to Intel, was that he'd taken a job at one of their biggest competitors. It was a few days before he was to leave the company, the managers guessed, that he tried to get into the files.But "3D XPoint" was protected. The technical specifications and files related to this ultra-secret project had been blocked from any attempt to copy it.A forensic expert said that a day before the man left, he plugged a flash drive into one of the computers in the building. It was 10:40 p.m. For an hour that September night they believe he took confidential personnel information of those working on "3D Xpoint" and copied it onto his drive. Intel said he would take the information, and after he went to his managers' chief competitor, he would do all he could to bring others with him.The information is all spelled out in court documents filed by the Intel corporation in a Sacramento Federal Court. In it they claim one of their hardware engineers, Doyle Rivers, did just that: corporate espionage.Rivers worked for Intel in Folsom for eight years. The court documents obtained by KCRA said that he secretly took a job at Micron, one of Intel's chief competitors. Intel believes he is now Vice President of Micron's 3D Xpoint technology. They also believe that in the days just before he left, Rivers tried to take as much information about "3D Xpoint" and its personnel as he could, according to court documents. The program was indeed protected from copying.3D Xpoint is a groundbreaking memory technology that makes computers run faster and smoother. The lawsuit claims Doyle hit up as many Intel engineers and personnel as he could in the weeks after he joined Micron to join him at the company.The lawsuit goes on to spell out what they believe transpired since September. They think Doyle took the USB drive to Micron and downloaded the information and when he found out that Intel was wise to his actions he wiped it clean.Initially, when Intel first spoke with Micron and Doyle, the man was represented by a Micron lawyer. When Intel sent the information about claims of espionage to Micron, they informed Intel that Doyle was getting his own lawyer.Intel said that Doyle has tried to recruit a number of their employees to join him at Micron on its XPoint technology team. The problem with that is he signed an agreement that he would not disclose any of the company's secrets and he could not speak about the project or try to recruit other personnel for at least a year, according to the lawsuit.Intel has asked for a forensic expert to look at Doyle's home computer but he has so far refused.Intel is asking for an injunction against their former engineer and to get their top secret information back. They also want him to refrain from speaking with or trying to recruit their employees.Intel is asking for a jury trial. People generally have 21 days to respond to a federal lawsuit. Doyle has not responded to date.