Complaint focuses on trade secrets

HP has filed a civil lawsuit against former CEO Mark Hurd, who recently accepted an offer to join Oracle as a president. The lawsuit alleges that Hurd has already violated contracts that prohibit him from disclosing trade secrets and other confidential information to HP's competitors. HP claims he has an intimate knowledge of the company's business strategies, customers, pricing, product development, and a variety of other details.

Although the executive has only been at his new job for a single day, HP suggests that his position will "make it impossible for him to avoid utilizing or disclosing HP's trade secrets and confidential information." Both companies compete in several different business segments focused on enterprise products, such as servers and storage.

As part of Oracle's press release regarding the hire, Hurd expressed his excitement over the company's Exadata servers and upcoming products to be announced at Oracle OpenWorld. The executive also voiced confidence that his new employer will beat IBM in the enterprise server and storage segments.

"As Hurd well knows, IBM and HP are competitors of Oracle in the enterprise servers and storage business," HP's complaint reads. "What Hurd and everyone else also knows is that the Exadata server mentioned in his quote is a direct competitive product to HP's Proliant server."

After Hurd was ousted from HP following allegations of sexual harassment, Oracle CEO Lawrence Ellison publicly accused HP's board of making "the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago." Ellison is known to be a personal friend of Hurd's, even as both men headed competing companies.

Whether or not HP can take action against Hurd is unclear, as California has laws that prevent or discourage the use of non-compete arguments.

By Electronista Staff