On 19th July, California-based Jolly reported the theft of portions
of its source code and confidential design documents relating to
one of its key products at its new research and development centre
in Mumbai, India.
According to the firm, Sudha Iyer, a recently hired 25-year-old
female software engineer, used her e-mail account to upload and
ship the copied files out of the research facility. Despite
worldwide interest in the theft, the company says that to date it
has still not been able to even officially register the theft with
the Indian police.
Exhaustive efforts to pursue the matter by Jolly have been met
with "utter and total reluctance to get involved" by the Mumbai
police department, says the company.
Jolly alleges that when the complaint was initially submitted,
even top level officials, when asked about the case, claimed to be
unaware of any intellectual property protection laws and refused to
acknowledge the complaint. India does have a regime of intellectual
property law that provides for criminal penalties, including
imprisonment. Yet, according to Jolly, the general consensus
amongst the Indian police continues to be that the fault lies with
Jolly for allowing the theft to occur.
According to SiliconValley.com, Jolly Technologies has now sued,
charging the Mumbai police with negligence. The company has also
reported the case to the FBI in the US and the Indian Central
Bureau of Investigation.
"In an era where American corporations are outsourcing more
sensitive data than ever before," says the firm, "Indian
authorities appear ill-prepared and extremely reluctant to handle
the law enforcement duties required to support such an
environment."
"What the law enforcement officials fail to realise is that by
refusing to uphold Indian law, they are jeopardising both the
American corporations that have entrusted their data to Indian
facilities as well as the jobs of potentially thousands of hard
working and honest Indian workers," the company added.
