Nvidia faces November trial over alleged stolen tech from Mercedes-Benz supplier Valeo, company says ‘We have no reason to…’

Nvidia will face a jury trial in the US over claims that one of its engineers used confidential technology from his former employer. According to a Bloomberg report, US District Judge Noel Wise in California has said that there is enough evidence to suggest Nvidia may have benefited from trade secrets taken from European auto parts maker

Valeo SE

. The case is Valeo Schalter und Sensoren GmbH v. Nvidia Corp., 23-cv-05721, US District Court, Northern District of California (San Jose). In her 15-page ruling, Judge Wise noted that Valeo had presented facts suggesting Nvidia’s parking assistance technology advanced rapidly after the engineer joined, and that Nvidia’s code showed “numerous functionalities directly paralleling Valeo’s stolen code.” However, the judge dismissed three of the seven trade secret claims.The case dates back to 2021, when an engineer from Valeo joined Nvidia while the companies were jointly working on a project for Mercedes-Benz. As per the report, the Valeo staff spotted their own source code displayed on the engineer’s screen and allegedly captured a screenshot before it was closed.Valeo later filed a lawsuit in San Jose, California in 2023. With the judge’s latest decision, the case is now set for trial in November.

What Nvidia says

As per Bloomberg report, Nvidia has denied using the stolen information and said it fired the engineer, Mohammad Moniruzzaman, after learning about the issue. Moniruzzaman was convicted in Germany for infringing business secrets. Nvidia also said it rolled back his work on the project.A Nvidia spokesperson told Bloomberg in a statement “Valeo already lost its case in Germany, and the German court ordered Valeo to pay our costs. We have no reason to believe the outcome in California will be any different, and will keep our focus where it should be — developing groundbreaking new technologies for our customers.”