Corporate espionage is a serious issue, especially in the mobile world, where every smartphone manufacturer wants to impress the market with new designs and innovative features. But because technology takes time to develop and test, internal projects are kept secret until a product is officially launched. A report by Chinese website PcPop reveals that six Huawei executives have been arrested on charges of leaking information to smartphone maker LeEco. It appears that six were mid- to high-level product designers at Huawei.
It's unknown at this point what information was leaked to LeEco, and the report says the six executives were no longer Huawei employees when the information was leaked to the rival company. However, they must have signed non-disclosure agreements with Huawei, especially if they were overseeing the development of new designs for various devices.
Chinese technology company LeEco issued a statement on the matter, saying it had not received any information from the arrested individuals, but acknowledged that there are some patent disputes between the two smartphone. LeEco has already stated its intention to take legal action.
Apparently, Huawei believes that LeEco's recent patent for children's smartwatches and antenna designs infringes on its patents. LeEco claims that the six people arrested never received any documents or designs upon leaving Huawei. It's not certain at this point, but more information will surely come to light as the case progresses.
In the smartphone market, many companies are looking for inspiration from phones already available on the market, and accusations of patent infringement are even made among the largest players in the market.
