Lawyers at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe know a thing or two about trade secret litigation. As we’ve chronicled, they just helped MGA Entertainment win a remarkable verdict in its death-match trade secret fight with Mattel.
Now eBay and its PayPal subsidiary have hired Orrick to sue Google for allegedly stealing trade secrets. The suit was filed Thursday, the same day that Google unveiled its new service that lets consumers use their smart phones to pay at checkout counters.
The 28-page complaint names Google and two of its executives, Stephanie Tilenius and Osama Bedier, both of whom formerly worked at PayPal. As it turns out, Tilenius, Google’s vice president of commerce and payments, was quoted in the press release announcing Thursday’s launch of “Google Wallet.” Bedier, the company’s vice president of mobile payments, gave a staged demonstration of the service.
In addition to raising claims of trade secret theft, the complaint alleges that Bedier breached his fiduciary duties to PayPal by interviewing for a position at Google at the same time that he was negotiating for PayPal to serve as a payment option on Google’s Android Market. The complaint also accuses Tilenius of violating her contractual obligations to eBay by recruiting Bedier to Google.
We reached out to PayPal’s counsel, G. Hopkins Guy III at Orrick, but didn’t hear back. According to the firm’s website, he’s represented eBay and PayPal previously in patent infringement cases.
PayPal spokeswoman Amanda Pires posted this statement on the company’s blog: “Spending time in courtrooms is generally not our thing. We prefer to compete and innovate, serving our customers by offering the best way to pay and be paid. . . . We treat PayPal’s ‘secrets’ seriously, and take it personally when someone else doesn’t.”
A Google spokesperson sent us this comment: “Silicon Valley was built on the ability of individuals to use their knowledge and expertise to seek better employment opportunities, an idea recognized by both California law and public policy. We respect trade secrets, and will defend ourselves against these claims.”
This article originally appeared in The Am Law Litigation Daily.
