According to Cointelegraph, Jump Trading has initiated legal action against a former software engineer, Liam Heeger, accusing him of breaching non-competition obligations and misappropriating intellectual property to establish a rival business. The lawsuit was filed on January 21 in a federal court in Chicago.
Jump Trading alleges that Heeger, who was a lead software engineer on the Firedancer blockchain project, violated his contractual non-compete clause by launching a business that directly competes with Jump. Heeger was involved in analyzing, designing, writing, and optimizing blockchain code from February 2023 until his resignation on November 11, 2024. Following his departure, Heeger announced via a social media post on January 22 that he had founded Unto Labs, a company focused on developing a next-generation layer-1 blockchain.
The firm claims that Heeger had access to sensitive and proprietary information, including business strategies, blockchain models, unreleased codebases, and software tools. Jump Trading emphasizes the importance of maintaining the confidentiality of its intellectual property, which includes strategies, proprietary data, research, and technology, to ensure its profitability in the blockchain sector.
Jump Trading further accuses Heeger of initiating work on his new venture while still employed by the company, exploiting confidential information and intellectual property developed during his tenure for the benefit of Unto Labs. The company alleges that Heeger secured $3 million in funding at a $50 million valuation shortly after his resignation and engaged with venture capital firms at the Breakpoint conference in Singapore while still under Jump's employment.
The lawsuit also claims that Heeger disclosed information to a former colleague after leaving Jump and informed his former supervisor that he would not adhere to the non-competition agreement, citing his relocation to California, where laws differ from those in Illinois. Jump Trading is seeking a court order to enforce the non-competition agreement for the stipulated two-year period and to prevent any collaboration with Heeger on the new venture that might breach the agreement. Additionally, the company requests that Heeger return any intellectual property belonging to Jump that he may still possess. Information regarding Heeger's legal representation was not available at the time of writing, and neither Heeger nor Unto Labs has responded to requests for comment.
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