CesiumAstro claims a former executive leaked trade secrets to upstart competitor AnySignal

CesiumAstro in a newly filed lawsuit, it accuses the former director of revealing trade secrets and confidential details about sensitive technologies, investors and customers to a competing startup.

Austin-based Cesium develops active-phase chips and software-defined radio systems for spacecraft, rockets and drones. Although phased array antenna systems have been utilized in satellites for many years, Cesium has significantly developed and improved the technology over its seven years of operation. The startup has raised over $100 million in enterprise and government funding, which it has used to develop a suite of products for industrial and defense customers.

The technology is area of interest: only a few corporations are working on cutting-edge space radio technologies, and Cesium is undoubtedly paying close attention to any recent entrant into the sector. AnySignal, a startup that got here out of stealth last October but was formally incorporated in 2022, has actually caught the corporate’s attention, not least since it overtook Cesium in a proposal to sell to a major customer and by trying to attract the interest of 1 early investor – each the facts are stated within the lawsuit.

According to the lawsuit filed on March 25, these facts are directly related to former vp of product Erik Luther’s misappropriation of trade secrets and confidential investor and customer information, which Cesium says he then disclosed to AnySignal. It’s price noting that Luther didn’t leave Cesium to work for AnySignal, as an alternative taking a position as head of selling at a company operating in a completely different sector. However, the lawsuit said Luther had a “personal connection” to AnySignal’s co-founders because he had previously worked with AnySignal CEO John Malsbury at one other company.

As a result, AnySignal “recruited and induced Luther … to improperly disclose” confidential and trade secret information, the lawsuit says. AnySignal’s CEO and CesiumAstro didn’t respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment; a lawyer representing Luther referred TechCrunch to the March 29 legal documents cited below.

Cesium makes its position clear within the lawsuit: it doesn’t consider AnySignal could have developed its complex radio technology on its time and with existing resources – “without CesiumAstro’s technical schematics and specifications (which Luther had access to).”

“With just a few employees and $5 million in investor funding, (AnySignal) wouldn’t even be in the same orbit as CesiumAstro, which has spent tens of millions of dollars working for seven years with (now) 170 employees to develop its technologies, – says the suit. “But with Luther’s help, AnySignal entered direct competition with CesiumAstro in the specialized software-defined radio space.”

Luther vehemently denied all allegations in two separate documents filed with the court on March 29; regarding the claim that he collaborated with AnySignal, he claims that the allegation is “not only false… but also made up out of thin air.” (The response also denied Cesium’s claim to be an “industry leader.”)

Cesium “does not cite any facts or evidence linking Luther to any of AnySignal’s business activities, and the purported evidence (Cesium) cites does not support (his) claims,” ​​Luther’s lawyer claims within the lawsuit. He then claims that Cesium is making a “Grand Canyon-scale leap from the flimsy, easily explainable evidence it cites to the extraordinary allegation that Luther is secretly helping AnySignal and giving them (Cesium) trade secrets, without citing any evidence.”

El Segundo-based AnySignal was founded in May 2022 by Malsbury and COO Jeffrey Osborne and got here out of stealth last yr touting $5 million in seed capital. The company is developing a software-defined radio platform; Cesium’s lawsuit calls it a “direct competitor.” In February, a month before the lawsuit was filed, AnySignal announced that it had partnered with private space station developer Vast on a sophisticated communications system for Vast’s flagship station, Haven-1.

The lawsuit was filed within the Western District of Texas under no. 1:24-cv-314.