Google sued by eBay, PayPal for stealing trade secrets

By on May 27, 2011 at 9:04 AM
Legal May 27, 2011

Google on Thursday finally took the wraps off its Google Wallet and Google Offers services, which offer an NFC-based contactless payment system married with a location-based local coupon service. On the same day, eBay and its online payment arm PayPal filed a lawsuit against Google and two of its executives for stealing trade secrets relating to mobile payments. Osama Bedier and Stephanie Tilenius, both of whom were heavily involved in the development of the Google Wallet service, were named in the suit. Beider and Tilenius were formerly PayPal employees who left the company to join Google and help build Google Wallet. Both executives were with PayPal for the better part of a decade, and Bedier was most recently vice president of platform, mobile and new ventures. The suit accuses Bedier of having “misappropriated PayPal trade secrets by disclosing them within Google and to major retailers,” and it alleges that Tilenius broke a contractual agreement with eBay by recruiting Bedier once moving to Google.

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33 Comments

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  • ajac09

    heck at long as google doesnt still the shitty business practices of playpal its all good.

    • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR6HpRLyzMY Walter Sobchak

      What?

      • Anonymous

        “Heck, as long as Google doesn’t steal the shitty business practices of PayPal, it’s all good.”

  • Anonymous

    Wow, Google really is the new Microsoft.

    • Anonymous

      Yes and next will become the to big for ourselves melt down….stay tuned.

  • KCRic

    Not sure how it’s stealing if those guys now work for Google, and did at the time of development. It’s not their fault if eBay and PayPal didn’t makes them sign a non-compete or gag order about intellectual property. This is just a bs lawsuit from two companies losing business. 

    • Tony

      Most companies make you sign a non-compete and confidentiality form at the time of hire so Ebay/PayPal are probably covered on that front.  It has more to do with proving that what they did at Google was a direct breach of that.

      • Senor Chang

        Burger flippers and Walmart greeters tend to not have any understanding of ‘non compete clauses’.

      • Anonymous

        More: they have to prove that it occurred within the timespan specified by the non-compete and confidentiality agreements, as my understanding is that these are necessarily time-limited. (Non-terminating agreements ones are not enforceable from what I recall – but IANAL)

  • Kyle

    typically of google to steal stuff from other’s wouldnt be the first time they stole idea’s…

    • Stphilpot

      Yeah, because Apple invented the touch screen and icons…and lets not forget the app store, right?

      • http://twitter.com/sentwittee Regavan Kumar

        No one is claiming Apple is a saint.

        If you fail to recognize – there is a difference between “stealing” and “buying” :-)

      • Kyle

        yes… they did actually…

      • Sarcasm

        and video phone calls..dont forget that..Apple invented it all!!

    • Anonymous

      Yes! Phones didn’t even exist before the iphone!

    • http://www.brooskie.com Broo

      lol- Apple is the new Microsoft with all their proprietary and ‘you don’t need to know the speed of the processor’ bullshit.  

  • Anonymous

    I think they’re just sour that they dragged their feet on their equivalent service and are trying to stall Google’s services to get more time to bring out their service.

    • Anonymous

      As if anyone would use their service after the hell that is trying to make a purchase with Paypal. My account is almost always limited, requiring me to call and sit on hold for twenty minutes to have it removed..and on top of that, after I made the mistake of getting a Paypal credit card, I can no longer choose a different form of payment.

  • Anonymous

    Don’t be Evil*

    *Not applicable to contractual obligations to past employers. 

  • http://www.droiddoes.com/ Norm

    Google doesn’t do wrong IMO. Paypal is a terrible company anyway. Google should take them over.

    • Kyle

      so when they are fuking you in the ass you remember that Norm… douchebag

  • Jamil

    I hate Paypal…but this is no different than Facebook. Simply put “It was STOLEN!”.

  • Bullyboyb

    I hate paypal, I don’t really care what happens to them.
    Oh on stealing bussiness secret. Was it made clear that the ideas these same guys developed for paypal belong to paypal? Was this registered as intellectual property that belongs to paypal.

    I have a great idea which I shared with my manager one time. He thought it was great but the company did not have funds or for some other reason could not implement it. I took my idea to my new employer who promptly invested in my idea. Is that stealing?

    • Senor Chang

      If you signed a contract saying you can no longer shit in a toilet, then guess what? You better invest in some buckets.

      • Anonymous

        Im almost positive its not as simple as shitting in a toilet.

    • Anonymous

      “I have a great idea which I shared with my manager one time. He thought it was great but the company did not have funds or for some other reason could not implement it. I took my idea to my new employer who promptly invested in my idea. Is that stealing?”

      If you came up with the idea, and switched jobs to further them.. than no.. its not stealing if you go to someone else/new employer. now if your old company trademarks your ideas and does nothing to further them. It sounds like there patent sitting. (waiting for someone to do it, than sue).

      Its sounds like ebay and Paypal are worried of competition, but who knows? could be something legit or something as dumb as “they copied our look and feel” ala apple.

  • Bringit

    Google – OPEN up and quietly say…EVIL.

  • Anonymous

    If PayPal wanted to keep those employees, they should have paid them more.  Who wouldn’t move to a different company if they got a better offer.  Google did nothing wrong – they offered experienced employees a job.  This happens all the time.  PayPal will lose this bs lawsuit.  

  • http://twitter.com/NICKVALENTIN0 Nick Valentino

    Good! I hope Google runs those SHIT BAGS into the ground!

  • Anonymous

    Sounds like there more upset that now a Major player entered there court. Than again, who knows?

  • Kent

    I thought non-compete’s are illegal in California? Can anyone enlighten us?

  • http://www.brooskie.com Broo

    Honestly- good for Google.  PayPal is an asinine company to deal with.

    Trade Secrets? Was PayPal coming out with a ‘PayPal Wallet’ soon?  Maybe they were taking too long to finalize ways to maximize gouging their customers and missed their chance? 

    When you finally have a transaction issue with PayPal you will never want to deal with them (or eBay) again.

  • Ziggla24

    screw paypal and ebay they have  had a monopoly too long and we need more competition in this field

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