NetApp Accuses VAST Data Executive Of Stealing Trade Secrets

In what checks out like a business thriller with a dash of dark funny, NetApp has actually submitted an explosive suit versus among its previous senior executives, declaring he covertly established a completing organization while still gathering an income. He then offered business to a direct competitor for a concealed amount simply weeks after leaving the business.

The case, just recently submitted in federal court in Florida, paints a photo of supposed business betrayal that integrates major legal offenses with an adventurous within joke referencing the 1999 cult traditional movie “Workplace.”

Below everything, nevertheless, lay the fortunes of 2 significant gamers in business facilities, NetApp and VAST Data. It’s likewise a claim that raises concerns about the significant power and affect an essential innovation executive wields in a hypercompetitive market like cloud AI and information facilities.

The Realities

The only clear realities in this case are that on November 6, 2025, NetApp submitted fit versus previous senior vice president and chief technical officer, Jón Stefánsson. The fit declares that Stefánsson tricked NetApp, took its copyright, and eventually leveraged that copyright when ending up being VAST Data’s basic supervisor of cloud services (discover a PDF of NetApp’s problem at this link).

NetApp likewise requested for, and was given, a short-term limiting order versus Stefánsson. The TRO limits him from, to name a few things, participating in any word activities “that connect to” and items, services, or “comparable innovations that Stefánsson produced or established while utilized at NetApp (a PDF copy of the TRO can be discovered here).

It’s important to keep in mind that VAST Data, while an incidental and affected celebration, is not implicated of any misdeed by NetApp. This is just about the supposed actions of a leaving essential executive who simply took place to land at VAST Data to assist develop a completing item.

The Executive Who Had All Of It

Jón Thorgrímur Stefánsson, understood throughout the idustry as “Jonsi,” wasn’t simply any NetApp staff member. Over his eight-year period, he climbed up the ranks to end up being Chief Innovation Officer and Senior Citizen Vice President, with sweeping obligations throughout the business’s cloud operations.

Stefánsson managed NetApp’s first-party cloud storage items, led cloud method, handled relationships with significant hyperscalers like Amazon Web Solutions, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure, and had his hands on the business’s whole cloud portfolio.

Simply put, Stefánsson had access to the crown gems, NetApp’s many secret information, exclusive developments, copyright, and vital organization relationships.

The Secret Start-up

According to NetApp’s problem, difficulty started brewing in early 2025. In January of that year, a previous NetApp staff member who now rests on the board of NetApp rival VAST Data, sent out a text to another ex-NetApp staff member specifying merely: “Jonsi remains in.”

Soon after, the very same individual sent out another message including simply the image of a red stapler.

For those not familiar with “Workplace,” the red Swingline stapler is the movie’s most renowned sign. It’s the treasured ownership of Milton, a mistreated workplace employee who ultimately burns down the structure after being pressed too far. The stapler represents office disappointment, disobedience, and supreme vengeance versus business companies.

The option of name wasn’t subtle. It was, NetApp declares, a within joke implied to tease the business on their escape the door.

The Smoking Cigarettes Weapon: Slack Messages and GitHub Activity

The red stapler referral was simply the start. NetApp’s suit includes what it thinks about damning proof, consisting of Slack messages exchanged on April 22, 2025, while both Stefánsson and another NetApp executive, Eiríkur Sveinn Hrafnsson, were still utilized.

In the company-provided chat application, Stefánsson apparently asked Hrafnsson: “Did you have the income figures for everybody we wish to get [to go to Red Stapler?]”

This wasn’t idle speculation about a future endeavor. According to NetApp, both males were actively hiring while on the payroll, outlining their exodus while still drawing wages from the business they were apparently preparing to complete versus.

A lot more bothersome was NetApp’s discovery of a “Red Stapler” GitHub repository suggesting that Stefánsson and Hrafnsson were actively creating and establishing software application for their start-up while Stefánsson was still utilized.

Internal e-mails reveal the “redstapler-is” company existed on GitHub as early as June 16, 2025, eleven days before Stefánsson officially left NetApp on June 27, 2025.

The Ten-Week “Wonder”

Red Stapler was formally included on July 3, 2025, simply days after Stefánsson’s departure. The business ran in stealth mode with Stefánsson as CEO, signed up with by 5 previous NetApp staff members and one present staff member– Hrafnsson, who stayed at NetApp up until August 31, 2025, even as he held the position of Red Stapler’s second-largest investor.

Then came the stunner. On September 9, 2025, a simple 10 weeks after incorporation, VAST Data, a direct NetApp rival, gotten Red Stapler for a concealed amount.

VAST’s news release explaining the acquisition promoted Stefánsson’s experience “contending versus VAST” (while at NetApp) and the Red Stapler group’s “performance history of creating and introducing cloud-native services with leading hyperscalers.”

The crown gem of the acquisition is apparently Red Stapler’s “cloud control aircraft and service shipment platform” that would enable VAST to “break perfectly into public cloud environments.”

Here’s where NetApp weeps nasty: The business had actually invested years and 10s of countless dollars establishing its Service Shipment Engine (SDE), which is an orchestration layer in between hyperscalers and NetApp storage that does exactly what Red Stapler’s item apparently does. The SDE permits end users to handle all components of their information estate from a hyperscaler’s native user interface, incorporating with any public cloud platform.

NetApp’s position is that there’s no other way Red Stapler might have established contending innovation in 10 weeks without leveraging NetApp’s personal and exclusive info. The mathematics does not build up.

Legal Responsibilities

Like all staff members with access to delicate info, Stefánsson signed a Proprietary Info, Creations, and Non-Solicitation Contract, a PIIA, before beginning work at NetApp. The arrangement was detailed:

• It forbade the disclosure or incorrect usage of NetApp’s personal and exclusive info throughout and after work
• It needed Stefánsson to designate NetApp all innovations established throughout his work
• It mandated alert of any innovations produced within 6 months after work ended
• It disallowed the solicitation of NetApp staff members and organization partners

According to NetApp, Stefánsson breached every among these arrangements.

Even if, hypothetically, Stefánsson and his group had actually in some way established Red Stapler’s innovation separately because impossibly brief timeframe, the PIIA needed him to alert NetApp of the innovation. According to NetApp, he never ever did.

Vanishing Act

When NetApp became aware of the huge acquisition in late October, the business sent out Stefánsson a cease-and-desist letter highlighting the direct overlap in between his NetApp function and his brand-new position as VAST’s General Supervisor of Cloud Solutions. The letter highlighted the impossibility of Red Stapler establishing its platform without trading on NetApp’s exclusive info.

Stefánsson didn’t react. NetApp sent out a 2nd letter. Once again, silence.

Then NetApp found something uncomfortable. Days after getting the very first cease-and-desist letter, Stefánsson put his Orlando home on the marketplace. He then obviously left the nation quickly, moving to Iceland.

According to NetApp, the message was clear. Stefánsson had no intent of engaging with NetApp’s accusations or abiding by what the business thinks are his legal commitments.

What’s at Stake

This case raises vital concerns that extend far beyond one executive and one business:

• Just how much can staff members take with them? In the innovation market, staff members often move in between rivals. However where’s the line in between basic understanding and abilities versus exclusive info and trade tricks?
• What takes place when the “difficult” takes place? If a little start-up can recreate in weeks what took a recognized business years and countless dollars to establish, is that development or appropriation?
• How enforceable are non-compete and innovation project arrangements? Courts have actually revealed differing mindsets towards such agreements, especially in various states and jurisdictions.
• What’s the worth of commitment in the contemporary tech economy? In a period where staff member movement is renowned and “disturbance” is the watchword, where do tasks to present companies suit?

What Follows

NetApp was given a short-term limiting order versus Jonsi and is looking for injunctive relief and damages. The business wishes to avoid Stefánsson from additional exploiting its secret information, utilizing styles and copyright that NetApp declares truly come from it, and disrupting its vital organization relationships.

However getting relief might show complex. Stefánsson is obviously now in Iceland, which might make complex enforcement of any U.S. court orders. VAST Data, while not called as an accused, now owns whatever Red Stapler established, developing extra intricacy if that innovation is certainly based upon NetApp’s exclusive info.

The limiting order is in impact up until November 26, 2025. NetApp is looking for to transform that into an irreversible injunction.

Expert’s Take

It’s difficult to understand what holds true in this case. NetApp submitted fit and was given a short-term limiting order, however we have not yet heard Jonsi’s side of the story. Since the publication date of this short article, he has actually not yet submitted an action with the court.

VAST Data, for its part, decreased to talk about the action and additional decreased to talk about Jonsi’s present position in the business or whether the TRO is affecting his daily activities. It is essential to restate that VAST is not called in the fit, though it might be materially affected by its result.

For NetApp, this isn’t almost one executive or one start-up. The business fears that Stefánsson’s supposed actions might jeopardize its relationships with hyperscaler partners, which took years to develop and underpin its cloud method. If exclusive info about these collaborations has actually been shown VAST, the competitive damage might be significant and continuous.

The timing is especially delicate. The cloud storage market is extremely competitive, with significant gamers defending position in the business information management area. Any competitive benefit, specifically one stemmed from inside understanding of a competitor’s innovation, collaborations, and method, might result in significant returns.

For innovation executives, this case functions as a plain tip of the legal and ethical borders that govern the shift from one company to another, specifically when that shift includes contending straight with your previous company utilizing understanding acquired throughout your work.

And for everyone seeing, it’s a tip that in the business world, in some cases the cult traditional referral is less about humor and more about harboring major objectives, along with major legal repercussions. We’ll be seeing as this one unfolds.

Disclosure: Steve McDowell is a market expert, and NAND Research study is a market expert company, that takes part in, or has actually taken part in, research study, analysis and advisory services with lots of innovation business, consisting of NetApp and VAST Data. No business pointed out was associated with the preparing of this short article.