There are rules for video calls at work. Close any files you don't want others to see before sharing your screen.

According to a lawsuit filed against tech giant Nvidia, senior staffer Mohammad Moniruzzaman made this mistake, with disastrous consequences.

He was giving an online presentation to a team at his former employer, the automotive technology company Valeo.

But in the process, Valeo claims it misrepresented files proving it had stolen technical secrets.

The technology Valeo claims to have acquired is the source code behind the company's parking and driver assistance software, an area Nvidia is moving into.

"Mr. Moniruzzaman's theft was truly brazen," the complaint said, noting that "the file path on his screen still read ValeoDocs," which specifically included documents obtained from Valeo. It suggests that it is a folder.

Valeo claims Moniruzzaman exfiltrated gigabytes of data in 2021 while working for the French company's German arm. He left later that year to join Nvidia.

A letter written by Nvidia's lawyers and filed with the lawsuit says the tech giant had no knowledge that Moniruzzaman had the data.

The two companies worked on a joint project that led to a March 2022 Microsoft Teams meeting in which Moniruzzaman unintentionally exposed data.

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Valeo claims that Moniruzzaman minimized the app he was using after giving his slide presentation, but importantly, Moniruzzaman was still sharing his screen and Valeo is using its proprietary software to minimize the app he was using. This means that the files containing the underlying source code were left visible.

“Valeo participants in the video conference immediately recognized the source code and took screenshots before Mr. Moniruzzaman informed them of the mistake,” the complaint alleges. “By then it was too late to cover his tracks.”

As a result, Moniruzzaman was convicted by German authorities in September 2023 for illegally retaining data, court documents said.

"When questioned by German police, Mr. Moniruzzaman admitted to stealing Valeo software and using the software while employed at Nvidia," the complaint alleges.

"In fact, Mr. Moniruzzaman did not deny the charges at any point during the German criminal investigation."

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Following the conviction, Valeo has now filed a lawsuit against Nvidia. The lawsuit alleges that the tech giant is profiting financially from "stolen trade secrets."

"NVIDIA saved millions, perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars in development costs and generated profits it was not properly earned and to which it was not entitled," the complaint alleges.

"By using these stolen trade secrets to develop competing products, NVIDIA diminished the value of Valeo's trade secrets."

The lawsuit was brought by Valeo Schalter und Sensären GmbH, the German arm of the French company.

The company is seeking large sums of money in damages and is asking the court to issue an injunction barring Nvidia and its affiliates from using Valeo's code.

The lawsuit was filed in court in California, where Nvidia is headquartered.

Valeo said in its complaint that after receiving a call from Teams in March 2022, an audit of its systems revealed that Moniruzzaman had copied "tens of thousands of files" containing source code and other confidential information. It is said that it was found that

His Nvidia-owned computer was later seized by German police as part of a criminal investigation, according to the complaint.

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Meanwhile, as part of its complaint, Valeo also submitted a letter it received from Nvidia in June 2022.

Lawyers representing Nvidia said in the letter that the company had "no knowledge" of Moniruzzaman's actions until May 2022, the day he told his employer he was under investigation. There is.

According to the letter, Monizruzzaman told Nvidia that the code was "only stored locally on my laptop" and could not be accessed by anyone else in the company.

"NVIDIA is not concerned with Valeo's alleged code or trade secrets and has quickly taken concrete steps to protect our client's asserted rights," the letter said. "We are cooperating with them," he added.

The BBC has contacted Valeo for comment. Nvidia declined to comment.