NetApp Sues Former CTO, Alleges He Took Trade Secrets To Rival Vast Data

In its lawsuit NetApp alleges Jonsi Stefansson was working against the company while he was still employed by ‘secretly starting a conflicting business and developing a competing product that he eventually sold to a direct rival company.’

Storage and cloud services technology developer NetApp has sued its former CTO, Jonsi Stefansson, who shortly after leaving NetApp went to work for rival Vast Data, for allegedly taking NetApp intellectual property he developed while an employee.

In its lawsuit, which was filed Nov. 6 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida in Orlando, Fla., NetApp accused Stefansson of working against the company while still employed by “secretly starting a conflicting business and developing a competing product that he eventually sold to a direct rival company.”

NetApp in the lawsuit, a copy of which was reviewed by CRN, asked the court to preliminarily and permanently enjoin Stefansson and multiple others from using NetApp’s confidential and proprietary information, particularly information used in building NetApp’s Cloud Control Plane.

NetApp also asked that Stefansson and multiple others not interfere with any employees, customers or business partners; that Stefansson disclose all inventions, software and know-how developed in the six months since he left NetApp; and that he return all NetApp proprietary information and assign rights to inventions he developed while an employee to NetApp.

In addition to filing the lawsuit against Stefansson, NetApp filed and was given a temporary restraining order through Nov. 26, which aims to prevent Stefansson from using NetApp’s confidential and proprietary information; engaging in any work activities related to any of the technologies or services he worked with at NetApp; soliciting or interfering with any NetApp business partners; destroying or concealing any documents or media related to the lawsuit; or altering any documents or files relating to NetApp.

Iceland native Stefansson, also known by his more formal name Jón Thorgrímur Stefánsson, spent eight years at San Jose, Calif.-based NetApp and left the company in July of this year as CTO and senior vice president. Almost immediately after, he formed a new company named Red Stapler, according to his LinkedIn profile.

NetApp rival New York-based Vast Data in September of this year acquired Red Stapler for an undisclosed amount. At the same time, Vast Data appointed Stefansson as general manager of cloud solutions to lead the company’s hyperscale cloud strategy.

Vast Data did not respond to a CRN request for further information by press time. CRN also reached out to Stefansson via LinkedIn but received no response by press time.

In Vast Data’s press release unveiling the acquisition of Red Stapler, founder and CEO Renen Hallak was quoted as saying, “The Red Stapler team brings a proven track record of designing and launching cloud-native services with leading hyperscalers. Their cloud control plane and service delivery platform helps enterprises burst seamlessly into public cloud environments with confidence. With Jonsi and team joining VAST, we gain proven expertise in working hand-in-hand with hyperscalers to deliver services that meet the demands of AI at global scale, and accelerate the path to a truly unified, multi-cloud data foundation.”

A NetApp spokesperson told CRN that the company did not bring this action lightly but instead was compelled to protect its intellectual property.

According to the spokesperson, “Mr. Stefansson prior to leaving NetApp was deeply involved in the development of NetApp’s Cloud Control Plane, which enables users to benefit from NetApp’s intelligent data infrastructure and OnTap operating system through a public cloud provider’s familiar native interface.”

As stated in the court filings, Stefansson left NetApp on June 27, 2025, and a week later, on July 3, he and an associate officially incorporated Red Stapler, which on Sept. 9 was acquired by Vast Data. That, the spokesperson said, was less than 10 weeks after Red Stapler was formed.

NetApp, in its lawsuit, said that while Stefansson left the company on June 27, he started preparing for his departure as early as January 2025. That, according to the suit, was when an ex-NetApp employee and current member of Vast Data’s board of directors sent a text message to another former NetApp employee which read, “Jonsi is in.” That former employee later sent a text with the image of a red stapler, according to the lawsuit.

NetApp, in the lawsuit, said it only this month discovered a Red Stapler GitHub repository that the company alleges shows that Stefansson along with Erikur Sveinn Hrafnsson, NetApp’s former CTO of its Cloud Business Unit, “must have been designing and developing software for Red Stapler while Stefánsson was still at NetApp, thereby violating multiple provisions in the PIIA (Proprietary Information, Inventions, and Non-Solicitation Agreement).”

NetApp wrote that Red Stapler was incorporated on July 3 with Stefansson as its top executive. Red Stapler also had five former NetApp employees in addition to Hrafnsson, who NetApp said was employed by NetApp at that time. NetApp competitor Vast Data acquired Red Stapler on Sept. 9.

NetApp alleges that the technologies that Red Stapler brought to Vast Data were developed by Stefansson and his team prior to their leaving NetApp.

“NetApp had spent years and tens of millions of dollars developing its SDE (Service Delivery Engine) and tailoring the SDE that fit the requirements of the major hyperscalers, going through numerous cycles of trial-and-error to perfect it,” the company wrote. “Stefánsson took advantage of these investments. By leveraging NetApp’s confidential and proprietary information, Stefánsson and the Red Stapler team (five former and one then-current NetApp employee, Hrafnsson) allegedly ‘developed’ competing products in just ten weeks. The then-current employee, Hrafnsson, who is the second biggest Red Stapler shareholder, remained an employee of NetApp until August 31, 2025.”

NetApp wrote that less than two weeks after learning of the acquisition and what Red Stapler was developing, it sent the first of two cease-and-desist letters to Stefansson.

“NetApp’s letter emphasized the direct overlap between Stefánsson’s role at NetApp and his new role as VAST’s General Manager of Cloud Solutions. The letter further referenced the impossibility of Red Stapler developing its cloud control plane and service delivery platform—which VAST claimed to have acquired—without trading on NetApp’s confidential and proprietary information,” NetApp said in the lawsuit.

After receiving no response, NetApp said it sent a second letter which also received no response because, it learned on Oct. 20, that Stefansson put his Orlando, Fla., house up for sale and moved to Iceland days after receiving the first letter.

The NetApp spokesperson said the timeline indicates that Red Stapler could not have developed its technology so quickly after the company’s founding.

“As stated in our court documents, we emphasize the impossibility of the development timeline of Jonsi’s company without the use of NetApp’s intellectual property and confidential information,” the spokesperson said. “NetApp was understandably alarmed by the news that Vast Data seemed to be launching products based on technology from Jonsi’s company Red Stapler, especially technology that he had worked on while at NetApp. Red Stapler simply could not have started from scratch and independently developed such a complex product to the point where it became the acquisition target and ready for productization in 10 weeks.”

NetApp’s lawsuit against Stefansson does not include Vast Data. The NetApp spokesperson declined to answer whether the company has filed or is planning to file legal action against Vast Data beyond saying that NetApp’s lawsuit does not include Vast Data.