Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab, one of the world’s top cyber security vendors, has filed a lawsuit against Cybersecurity Solutions, a company founded by former employees now in dissolution, in an IP rights dispute.
Kaspersky claims the company was founded in 2018 by some of its banking fraud prevention employees who were still working for Kaspersky at that time, business daily Kommersant reported earlier this month.
Kaspersky claims that after the employees quit their jobs, they started using Cybersecurity Solutions to sell software, which “most likely used the results of intellectual activities, the rights to which belong to the complainant party.” Kaspersky demands its exclusive rights on those software components be acknowledged and the other party be obliged to stop using them.
Which kind of software products are concerned has remained unknown.
According to Stanislav Zinovyev, director general of Moscow-based Sotbi law firm, Kaspersky will stand a chance to win the case only provided that its contracts with its former employees did stipulate the protection of its property rights upon their resignation and Kaspersky did register its rights to those software components properly.
Otherwise, as legal practice in Russia demonstrates, the founders of Cybersecurity Solutions may be allowed to continue to use their own software solutions at their will, said Forward Legal lawyer Gregory Nistratov.
