Marveling at Marvell
The case has been around for almost a decade. Jasmine Networks claims that rival Marvell Semiconductor stole its trade secrets and engaged in an unfair trade practice by hiring away Jasmine’s engineering group.
Sounds like a classic lawsuit except that part of what has kept this case alive for so long involves a phone call made by Marvell’s then general counsel, Matthew Gloss, to Jasmine’s in house counsel, Virginia Wei. Ms. Wei was not available to pick up the phone so it rolled over to her voice mail. Gloss thought he ended the phone call to Wei, but Wei’s phone must have been pumped up with Duracell batteries because the recording device kept going and going and going.
The conversation it captured on tape wasn’t pretty. Sitting with Gloss at the time were Marvell’s patent counsel and their VP of engineering. The three of them “openly discussed theft of Jasmine’s trade secrets and the unlawful hiring of [Jasmine's] engineering group, as well as the potential consequence of jail for [this] conduct.” Can you imagine the look on Ms Wei’s face when she heard that?
It just goes to show you that you can never be too careful about checking your surroundings to make sure your confidential conversations stay “confidential.” (See How to Avoid Smoking Guns Rule #4.)
In the years that followed Marvell has been unsuccessful in suppressing the incriminating voice mail from evidence and is now claiming the tape was edited. How embarrassing is that?
Sounds like its too late for an apology now, but I can’t help wonder whether it would have made a difference before the fur started flying.
If you’re interested in learning about what makes one apology better than another you won’t want to miss my interview next week with best selling business author John Kador when we discuss his new book Effective Apology: Mending Fences, Building Bridges, and Restoring Trust (Bk Business)
Tags: apology, Effective Apology, Jasmine Networks, John Kador, Marvell Semiconductor