NVIDIA is facing a lawsuit filed by French automotive company Valeo after a screensharing blunder by one of its employees. Valeo’s complaint details that Mohammad Moniruzzaman, an engineer for NVIDIA who previously worked for Valeo, mistakenly displayed its source code files on his computer during a 2022 meeting with both firms. Valeo’s employees noticed the code and took screenshots before Moniruzzaman was informed of his error.
It’s important to note that Valeo and NVIDIA are collaborating on advanced parking and driving assistance technology provided by a manufacturer to its customers. Valeo used to oversee the software and hardware aspects of the manufacturer’s parking assistance tech. However, in 2021, the larger corporation secured the contract to develop its parking assistance software. Valeo stated in its lawsuit that its former employee realized that his exposure and access to its proprietary technologies would make him “exceedingly valuable” to NVIDIA.
Moniruzzaman supposedly illicitly granted his personal email access to Valeo’s systems to pilfer “tens of thousands of files” and 6GB of source code shortly after. He then departed from Valeo a few months later, taking the stolen information with him when he assumed a senior position at NVIDIA. He also worked on the same project he had been involved in at Valeo, which explains his presence at the video conference.
Valeo asserted that its former employee admitted to stealing its software and that German police discovered its documentation and hardware affixed to Moniruzzaman’s walls during a raid on his residence. According to Bloomberg, he was previously convicted of infringing business secrets in a German court and was ordered to pay €14,400 ($15,750) in September.
In a letter dated June 2022, NVIDIA’s lawyers assured the plaintiff’s counsel that the company “has no interest in Valeo’s code or its alleged trade secrets and has taken prompt concrete steps to protect [its] client’s asserted rights.” Nevertheless, Valeo proceeded with the lawsuit and claimed that NVIDIA has “saved millions, perhaps hundreds of millions, of dollars in development costs, and generated profits that it did not properly earn and to which it was not entitled” by stealing its trade secrets.
This incident underscores the escalating competition in the autonomous driving market. In 2017, Waymo accused Uber of conspiring with its former employee, Anthony Levandowski, to pilfer over 14,000 confidential and proprietary design files. Levandowski was sentenced to 18 months in prison, but he was pardoned six months later by then President Donald Trump.
