US prosecutors have charged six former and current Fitbit employees for knowingly possessing trade secrets stolen from Jawbone, Reuters reports[1].
The six individuals all worked for the now-defunct Jawbone sometime between May 2011 and April 2015 before joining Fitibit.
Jawbone sued Fitbit[2] over stolen trade secrets in 2015, just ahead of Fitbit's IPO. The case was settled in December 2017, after Jawbone began shutting down operations.
As Reuters notes, a federal administrative law judge found in a 2016 case -- involving the same individuals -- found "no Jawbone trade secrets were misappropriated or used in any Fitbit product, feature or technology."
The defendants are slated to appear in court in San Jose, California on July 9. If convicted, the San Francisco Chronicle reports[3], they could face a maximum of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 per count, as well as a maximum of three years of supervised release.