Google sues Pixel engineer who allegedly posted trade secrets online

'See you in court', defendant posts

Google filed a lawsuit last week against an Indian semiconductor engineer for allegedly posting trade secrets related to its Google Pixel chip designs online.

Legal action was filed in the US District Court for the Western District of Texas alleging the engineer, Harshit Roy, engaged in "misappropriation of trade secrets."

According to his LinkedIn profile, Harshit Roy worked at Google for nearly four years beginning in 2020 in Bengalaru, taking the role as his first post-university career step.

His role, according to court documents [PDF], made him responsible for assisting with the design, development, and deployment of unreleased next-generation system-on-chips used on Google's Pixel devices – including smartphones, tablets and wearables.

Google stated that it became aware that Roy had collected photos of its trade secrets in December 2023 and addressed the issue, resulting in Roy agreeing to delete all pictures and send evidence of their destruction.

Somehow, despite all this, he remained employed until March of 2024. He resigned to attend a doctoral program at the University of Texas at Austin.

According to the Chocolate Factory, when he did leave, Roy didn't return his corporate laptop – despite being legally obligated to do so.

After leaving Google, Roy allegedly began posting confidential information on X, where he allegedly shared since-removed photographs of internal documents and Pixel processing chips. He allegedly continued posting what Google called "non-public internal files" to his LinkedIn account. He is said to have threatened the search giant with additional disclosures.

Text accompanying posts included quips like "remember that empires fall and so will you" and "don't expect me to adhere to any confidentiality agreement."

The former employee is said to have signed a confidentiality agreement back in 2020 as a condition of his employment.

Google claims it issued takedown requests which, according to the lawsuit, Roy ignored. According to Google, it made good faith attempts "to resolve this without judicial intervention."

In the meantime, Google alleges, Roy continued releasing secrets. The lawsuit claims he released 158 photographs of detailed information about the unique strengths of the SoC, specific concerns with Pixel smartphones that the SoC seeks to address, an Excel spreadsheet, and more in early November.

Roy's true downfall – aside from squaring up to a $2 trillion dollar megacorporation and allegedly violating its confidentiality agreement – may be his move to Texas for graduate school. The Chocolate Factory tracked him down on campus in an effort it described as resolution seeking. As Roy ignored its efforts, it was thereby, reluctantly, forced to seek emergency relief from the court.

"Because he now resides in Texas, has committed trade secret misappropriation here, and threatened further misappropriation, he is subject to the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) and the Texas Uniform Trade Secrets Act (TUTSA)," asserted Google in its lawsuit.

Google went on to note that the DTSA applies to conduct occurring outside the United States because "an act in furtherance of the offense was committed in the United States."

Google has asked for unspecified monetary compensation, and for Roy to be blocked from sharing any more secrets. Among the secrets Google feels remains are:

• An internal 78-page document consisting of proprietary non-public schematics and details about an SoC, including its audio and sensor processing capabilities;
• An internal 110-page document consisting of proprietary non-public schematics and details about the SoC, including its video processing capabilities;
• An internal 12-page document that provides details about the SoC's architecture, including past and future roadmaps documenting the SoC's development;
• An internal 24-page document includes schematics and details about the SoC's security features.

Roy's motivation, that is unclear. During his tenure at Google, he made comments on Twitter/X hinting his workplace experience was less than ideal, including proclamations that the firm encouraged lying and mistreats its employees. He even suggested employees should be fired and offered a severance package rather than be kept "in a hanging state."

The Register contacted Roy to further understand his position, but did not receive a reply by the time of publication. Roy did post on his LinkedIn page on Wednesday stating: "A case that goes undefended does not count as a victory. I'll see you in court soon."

Roy has also Xeeted previously about open-sourcing SoC architectures.

He regularly appears to be reposting what could be categorized as a manifesto of sorts, in addition to a Microsoft OneDrive link containing Google secrets. A OneDrive link was posted as recently as last week – although that one no longer appears to work. ®