Nvidia settles trade-secret lawsuit over driving assistance technology

By Blake Brittain

Dec 17 (Reuters) - Nvidia NVDA.O has settled a U.S. lawsuit from automotive supplier Valeo VLOF.PA that alleged a former Valeo software engineer hired by Nvidia stole company trade secrets related to car parking assistance technology and inadvertently revealed the theft on a video call.

An entry on a California federal court docket said that the companies told a judge on Monday that they had resolved the case, which was set for trial in January.

Nvidia declined to comment. Spokespeople and attorneys for Valeo did not immediately respond to a request for comment and more information about the settlement.

Valeo sued Santa Clara, California-based Nvidia in 2023. The lawsuit alleged that former Valeo engineer Mohammad Moniruzzaman took confidential source code related to its driving assistance systems to a new job at Nvidia and accidentally shared the stolen code during a collaborative video call between the two companies.

The complaint said that Nvidia is new to supplying autonomous vehicle technology and used the secrets to speed its entry to the market and save millions of dollars in development costs.

Nvidia denied Valeo's claims and said it had fired Moniruzzaman after it learned of the allegations. It previously fended off a related Valeo lawsuit in Germany.

The case is Valeo Schalter und Sensoren GmbH v. Nvidia Corp, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, No. 5:23-cv-05721.

For Valeo: Russell Levine and Laura Uhlenhuth of Kirkland & Ellis

For Nvidia: Sean Pak, Owen Roberts and Ron Hagiz of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan

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