Groupon Sues Ex-Employees For Taking Trade Secrets To Google
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Groupon has filed a lawsuit against two of its former sales managers for passing on confidential trade secrets to Google, after they left the daily deals company to join Google’s very own competing daily deals site, Google Offers, showed an Illinois court filing on October 21.
The case, named Brian Hanna and Michael Nolan as defendants, both of whom left the company just last month in order to join up with Google’s new online offering.
Groupon has filed a lawsuit against two of its former sales managers for passing on confidential trade secrets to Google, after they left the daily deals company to join Google’s very own competing daily deals site, Google Offers, showed an Illinois court filing on October 21.
The case, named Brian Hanna and Michael Nolan as defendants, both of whom left the company just last month in order to join up with Google’s new online offering.
In its complaint, Groupon pointed out that “in their new positions with Google Offers and/or Google, Hanna and Nolan will provide the same or similar services as they provided at Groupon,” requiring them “to employ confidential and proprietary information that they learned while employed at Groupon.”
According to representatives from Groupon, the hiring of Hanna and Nolan by Google also breaches their employment contract with Groupon, which specifically states that the pair cannot work with a direct competitor for 24 months after leaving the company.
The men are also being accused of breaching promises to protect Groupon information including customer lists and sales and marketing plans.
According to the filing, Groupon is seeking legal restitution that will prevent the pair from doing so. Groupon on its part, is also said to be not suing Google, but just Nolan and Hanna.
The news came nearly a year after Groupon owners rejected a $6 billion takeover bid from Google for the site. One month later, Google Offers was born as a direct competitor to the site.
According to Google’s spokesman Jim Prosser in Bloomberg BusinessWeek, company officials have yet to look into Groupon’s complaint and thus had no comment to speak on at the current time. Groupon has thus far also failed to comment on the lawsuit as well.
