Before Michael Laude left his job at teletech company, Qualcomm he took with home some 450,000 company files chock full of sensitive product data, computer code and trade secrets. After leaving Qualcomm (on a day's notice), Laude left to work from rival Nokia, (where he started the next day). But Laude was apparently more pack-rat than industrial saboteur.

While Nokia was apparently aware of their new hire's stockpile of competitor's documents, there is no evidence based on a lengthy investigation that Nokia ever benefited from Laude's data. Thus, even thought Laude was convicted in October '06 of stealing trade secrets, his sentence for said crime was a relatively mild 3 years probation.

For more on the story check out the Womble Carlyle Trade Secrets Blog. This is a new blog on my list and one I'll be checking out regularly, although this particular post seems to be a direct paste from an AP story...

-- MDT

Labels: Nokia, Qualcomm, trade secrets, Womble Caryle