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Tech giant Citrix, sync 'n' share startup Egnyte fire lawsuits at each other

Non-compete legal battle

Two file sync 'n' sharers are at war. Google-backed Egnyte is suing Citrix for unfair competition and Citrix is counter-suing Egnyte for unfair trade practices, among other things.

The battle started when Egnyte hired seven ex-Citrix sales people, in the process of setting up a regional sales office in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Citrix notified Egnyte of the existence of the staffers' non-compete agreements in a September 22, 2017 demand letter, attempting to prevent the workers from working at Egnyte.

California-based Egnyte then filed a lawsuit against Citrix in California* on October 6 on behalf of itself and the seven ex-Citrix employees – asking for declaratory relief so it could keep the sales people at Egnyte.

Citrix then alleged in its own October 12 counter-complaint** that the staffers, named as co-defendants, had accessed confidential Citrix information after they had left for Egnyte, its competitor. It is seeking a temporary restraining order and injunction against them for allegedly breaching their non-compete, non-disclosure and non-solicitation employment agreements by working for Egnyte.

In its suit Egnyte claimed:

"Neither the individual plaintiffs nor Egnyte have taken or used any Citrix proprietary information."

Citrix alleged in its own complaint that trade secrets including "a highly sensitive list of Citrix’s largest accounts worldwide" were misappropriated.

Egnyte is paying the sued individuals' legal expenses.

Egnyte CEO Vineet Jain declared:

"Citrix is seeking to enforce overly broad and antiquated (in most states) non-compete agreements that do not reflect the spirit of fair and market competition in the modern business world..." ®

* Case number 17 CV316926, Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara.

** Case number CACE-17-018715, Circuit Court of the 17th Judicial Circuit, Broward County, Florida.

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