Jawbone alleges Fitbit employees stole 335,191 more files

Last edited 11:06 a.m., March 18, 2016

Jawbone filed new accusations this week accusing employees at fitness tracker Fitbit of stealing hundreds of thousands of company files.

The accusations stem from a May 2015 lawsuit filed in California Superior Court. In the suit, Jawbone accused Fitbit of stealing employees, who then appropriated trade secrets and intellectual property files when they went to work for the rival company.

After a judge ordered forensic analysis of Fitbit’s computer storage, the company turned over 18,000 files. Citing the analysis results, a court filing made Monday brings that count to 335,191.

Fitbit denies any of the files in question were accessed or used, and in September countersued Jawbone for patent infringement, according to CNNMoney.

A Fitbit representative has since issued this statement to Springfield Business Journal:

“Jawbone’s latest attempt to bring additional baseless trade secret claims comes on the heels of it suffering another defeat in its similarly meritless patent litigation against Fitbit at the ITC.  Recently, the ITC judge ruled that two of Jawbone’s patents are ineligible under case law settled by the U.S. Supreme Court, and only two of its original six patents remain at issue in that case.  We believe Jawbone’s latest request to file yet another amended complaint indicates desperation due to its inability to compete in the market and its setbacks at the ITC.  Just like the other claims asserted in this litigation, the additional claims Jawbone seeks to assert are unsubstantiated and based on gross mischaracterizations of the events that occurred months ago.

"Further, there is no evidence or allegation that Fitbit ever had access to the additional files Jawbone cites in its motion.”

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