It is a requirement to close any files you don't want others to see prior to sharing your screen during a video call at work.
A lawsuit has been filed against tech giant Nvidia, alleging that senior staff member Mohammad Moniruzzaman made a mistake which had catastrophic results.
He presented online to a team from Valeo, the car technology company he used to work at.
In the process, however, Valeo states that he inadvertently presented a file that reveals he had pilfered its technical secrets.
Valeo asserts that they have obtained the source code for their parking and driving assistance software, which is an area Nvidia has been attempting to move into.
It is asserted by the complaint that Mr Moniruzzaman's stealing was so flagrant that the file path on the screen he was using was still reading "ValeoDocs" - indicating that the folder he had accessed was specifically created to contain records obtained from Valeo.
Valeo alleges that Mr Moniruzzaman appropriated gigabytes of data in 2021 whilst being employed by the German branch of the French organization. He subsequently moved to Nvidia that same year.
In a letter submitted along with the lawsuit, Nvidia's lawyers stated that the tech giant had no knowledge of Mr Moniruzzaman possessing any of the data.
The firms collaborated on a venture, which resulted in the Microsoft Teams gathering in March 2022 when Mr Moniruzzaman apprised the data in an unthinking way.
Valeo alleges that Mr Moniruzzaman gave a slide presentation and then reduced the application he was utilising - however, crucially, he was still projecting his screen, leaving the document which Valeo claims held the source code for its exclusive software visible.
The lawsuit states that when members of Valeo joined the videoconference, they quickly identified the source code and saved a screenshot of it before Mr Moniruzzaman noticed his mistake. Unfortunately, it was too late for him to conceal his actions.
Mr Moniruzzaman was found guilty by German courts in September of 2023 for the crime of possessing data unlawfully, according to the court document.
Mr Moniruzzaman confessed to the German police that he had taken Valeo's software and had used it while employed at Nvidia, as stated in the lawsuit.
Mr Moniruzzaman never rejected the accusation of the offense at any stage of the German legal inquiry.
This has caused Valeo to initiate litigation against Nvidia, alleging that the technology giant profited from its "misappropriated trade secrets".
The complaint claims that Nvidia has saved large amounts of money on development costs and has acquired undeserved profits.
Nvidia has undermined the worth of Valeo's trade secrets by employing them to design a rival item.
Valeo Schalter und Sensoren GmbH, the German branch of a French company, has initiated the lawsuit.
It is asking for considerable compensation, and is requesting the court to issue an injunction that would prevent Nvidia and its associated entities from exploiting Valeo's code.
Nvidia's home state of California has seen the filing of a court action.
Valeo alleged in the complaint that following a Teams call last March, an audit of its systems revealed that Mr Moniruzzaman had copied its source code, along with a plethora of other confidential files.
German police confiscated his Nvidia-owned computers as a part of the criminal inquiry, as stated in the lawsuit.
At the same time, as part of their complaint, Valeo included a letter they had gotten from Nvidia back in June 2022.
In a letter, attorneys for Nvidia declared that they were unaware of Mr Moniruzzaman's activities until May 2022, when he informed his supervisor that he was facing an investigation.
In the letter, Mr Monizruzzaman declared to Nvidia that the code was kept exclusively on his laptop and thus, could not be accessed by anyone else from the organization.
The letter states that Nvidia has no enthusiasm in Valeo's code or its claimed trade secrets and has taken quick tangible steps to uphold your client's declared rights. Moreover, Nvidia has fully cooperated.
The BBC has asked Valeo to respond to the matter, whereas Nvidia has refused to do so.
Comments