Press release
Nutanix Files Theft of Intellectual Property Lawsuit Against Tessell, Inc.
Nutanix asserts willful copyright and patent infringement, including theft of Nutanix resources and its database service source code SAN JOSE,
About this update from Nutanix, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"\nNutanix asserts willful copyright and patent infringement, including theft of Nutanix resources and its database service source code\n\n\n SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--\nNutanix (NASDAQ: NTNX), a leader in hybrid multicloud computing, today announced that it filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in San Jose, alleging that Tessell, Inc. engaged in willful copyright and patent infringement, including theft of Nutanix’s source code and intellectual property related to the Company’s database service offering.\n\n\nAs alleged in the Federal complaint, Tessell’s founders include former Nutanix employees Bala Kuchibhotla, Kamal Khanuja, and Bakul Banthia. The complaint against Tessell alleges that, during their employment with Nutanix, these former employees covertly designed, built, demonstrated, and secured financing for the future Tessell product, using Nutanix source code, servers and other resources. The complaint alleges that they took Nutanix Era1 source code with them to Tessell, which used it.\n\n\nThe complaint further alleges that they schemed to remove all indicia of Nutanix branding from their prototype, and then tried to cover their tracks by wiping their Nutanix laptops. Nutanix is seeking the return of its stolen intellectual property, an injunction to stop further infringement, restitution for the Nutanix resources taken by the three former employees for the founding of Tessell, and money damages in an amount to be proven. Nutanix also announced that it is commencing separate arbitration proceedings against the Tessell founders per their Nutanix employee agreements.\n\n\n“It has been shocking to learn of the behavior of these former employees during their employment, the scope of what they took from Nutanix, and the steps they took to hide their use of Nutanix resources to found their company,” said Tyler Wall, Chief Legal Officer at Nutanix. “Nutanix believes strongly in fair competition and its importance and value to the industry overall, and it is with deliberate and thoughtful consideration that we have decided to file this lawsuit. The facts that our investigation uncovered were egregious. We look forward to presenting our evidence and proving our claims in the litigation.”\n\n\nNutanix believes in innovation, but stealing intellectual property and source code is not innovation. Nutanix does not have...