U.S. District Court Issues Order to Produce Source Code Related to Trade Secret Theft Lawsuit

A U.S. district court in Massachusetts ordered VoiceSignal Technologies, to produce "complete and unredacted" source code to Nuance's designated counsel and a neutral expert as part of Nuance's trade secret misappropriation lawsuit against Voice Signal.

Nuance filed a trade secret misappropriation and patent infringement lawsuit against VoiceSignal Technologies on Feb. 23 in the district court.

Nuance's trade secret misappropriation complaint states that VoiceSignal  misappropriated and uses Nuance confidential information and trade secrets in the field of speech recognition and related technologies, which the company acquired when it purchased certain assets from Lernout and Hauspie in 2001. This trade secret information includes speech and natural language information and technologies that provide Nuance with competitive advantages in the market for embedded speech products.

In its patent infringement complaint, Nuance states that VoiceSignal Technologies, Inc. infringes a Nuance patent that covers voice-activated dialing for mobile telephones. Nuance seeks monetary damages for past infringement and injunctive relief to prevent VoiceSignal from continuing to infringe U.S. Patent No. 6,501,966 "Speech Recognition System for Electronic Switches in a Non-Wireline Communications Network."

Commenting on the order, Mira Genser, vice president of marketing communications at VoiceSignal, explains "This court order is nothing more than a routine discovery procedure, a non-event. No Nuance employee will have access to any of the VoiceSignal code and, furthermore, Nuance was also ordered to produce their 'complete and unredacted' source code to the neutral expert and VoiceSignal's counsel."

VoiceSignal has filed a counter-claim of patent infringement on Nuance.