Zettaset sues Intel in big data stoush

Big data vendor Zettaset has sued Intel, claiming the chip maker misappropriated trade secrets related to its Hadoop management software.

Zettaset last week filed a misappropriation of trade secrets civil complaint against Intel in a Californian state court.

The complaint alleges, among other things, that Intel “unlawfully extracted trade secrets” from Zettaset’s product and technology such that “the Intel Manager for Apache Hadoop Software now mirrors the features and functionality of Zettaset’s Orchestrator software”.

Zettaset President and CEO Jim Vogt detailed some specifics of the suit in a statement.

“Since early 2012, Zettaset and Intel have been involved in a deep business relationship regarding Zettaset’s Hadoop management layer - our enterprise software platform, Orchestrator. These interactions were conducted in good faith with the goal of a potential partnership and commercial relationship,” Vogt said.

During that time, Intel had access to Zettaset’s product and technology, including “proprietary and highly confidential information”, he said.

Then, in February 2013, Intel announced a Hadoop management framework in direct competition with Zettaset’s Orchestrator, Vogt said.

“Clearly, our trade secrets and technology were compromised and inappropriately secured under our NDA agreement, and on Thursday, October 10, 2013, we filed a formal complaint against Intel Corporation for Breach of Contract and Misappropriation of Trade Secrets,” he went on.

“Zettaset does not like courts, or lawyers, or litigation, but we have an obligation to our shareholders and investors to protect our intellectual property, which is a key value to our business,” he said.

According to Gigaom, Zettaset alleges that Intel not only copied various facets of Orchestrator, but also later approached Zettaset’s partners and potential customers in an attempt to supplant Zettaset.

Zettaset’s Orchestrator software purportedly automates and simplifies the installation and management of Hadoop-based big data operations. Hadoop is a software framework that allows for the distributed processing of data sets across clusters of computers.

A pre-trial conference is scheduled for 14 February 2014.