Yahoo Called Out For Poaching Workers

Nuance Communications has sued Yahoo, claiming theft of trade secrets and unfair competition. 13 could be an unlucky number for Yahoo, as Menlo Park, CA-based Nuance believes that number of its engineers who joined Yahoo were unlawfully taken. Worse, the company thinks Yahoo has stolen its speech recognition technology. The Mercury News has reported Nuance filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court, seeking to block their working for Yahoo. Nuance VP of R&D Larry Heck bolted for Yahoo at the end of August; other engineers in California and in Montreal followed them. Yahoo has been a licensor of some of Nuance's technology, the report notes. Premium users of Yahoo Mail have been utilizing it when using a phone to access email. In the lawsuit, Nuance " the combined company denied his request to be named chief technology officer. Meanwhile, Heck swapped e-mails with Yahoo about joining its team. The suit says Heck then e-mailed himself his own rsum, a list of Nuance employees to potentially bring to Yahoo, and a proposed organizational plan for an R&D department. On Aug. 30, Heck announced he was quitting Nuance to work at Yahoo. So did one of his key managers. David Utter is a staff writer for murdok covering technology and business. Email him