PayPal Sues Google, Says It Stole Trade Secrets

EBay and its PayPal subsidiary have filed a lawsuit accusing Google of stealing its trade secrets in the creation of its Google Wallet product. The suit names two executives—Osama Bedier and Stephanie Tilenius—who jumped ship to Google after long stints working at PayPal and eBay respectively, Reuters reports. It accuses Bedier of “misappropriating trade secrets,” and says that before leaving the company, he transferred documents related to PayPal’s mobile payment strategy to his personal computer.

But perhaps Bedier’s most valuable trade secret, the lawsuit says, was how PayPal views Google’s weaknesses. “Google bought the most comprehensive and sophisticated critique of its own problems available,” it says. The suit also accuses Tilenius of breaking her contract with eBay by recruiting Bedier, and says Bedier himself has tried to recruit former coworkers. According to the suit, Google and PayPal worked together for three years on a system that would let customers pay for things with their Android phones, until Google ditched PayPal and partnered with MasterCard, Citigroup, and Sprint instead. (More Google Wallet stories.)