PANews reported on January 24 that according to Cointelegraph, the crypto company Jump Trading sued former software engineer Liam Heeger, accusing him of violating the non-compete obligation after leaving the company and stealing the company's intellectual property to conduct competing business. On January 21, Jump filed a complaint with the Chicago Federal Court, stating that the company operated by Heeger directly competed with Jump and violated the non-compete clause.
Heeger was a core engineer of Jump's main blockchain project Firedancer until November 2024. After leaving, he announced on social media that he had founded Unto Labs, which is dedicated to developing the next-generation Layer-1 blockchain. Jump accused Heeger of accessing and developing highly sensitive confidential information during his tenure, and emphasized that protecting intellectual property rights is crucial to Jump's profitability in the blockchain field.
In addition, Jump also accused Heeger of starting to prepare a new company while he was in office and using Jump's confidential information and intellectual property to seek benefits. It is reported that within a month after Heeger resigned, the new company received $3 million in financing at a valuation of $50 million. Jump also pointed out that Heeger had met with venture capital firms during his tenure to raise funds for new businesses and disclosed relevant information to a former colleague of Jump. Heeger also refused to comply with the non-compete agreement on the grounds of moving to California. In response to Heeger's serious breach of contract, Jump asked the court to enforce the relevant terms of the non-compete agreement, prevent him from starting new business, and require him to return the company's intellectual property that he may still hold.
