The timing, the rival hire, and the gap that stalled an employer's claim
Victoria's Supreme Court struck out a software firm's claim that a rival gained from its ex-manager's alleged misuse of confidential files - for now.
In a decision dated August 24, 2026, the court delivered a mixed result in a dispute Cyara Solutions brought against a former sales manager and a competitor, Hypertech Solutions. For HR leaders, it is a plain lesson in the distance between a strong suspicion and a claim that holds up.
Cyara alleges its former Australia and New Zealand sales manager misused confidential information and broke confidentiality and restraint obligations after leaving, and that Hypertech knowingly benefited. None of that has been tested. The court ruled only on whether Cyara had set out its claim against the competitor properly - and found it had not.
The backdrop is the kind of exit that makes HR uneasy. Cyara alleges the manager downloaded about 11,000 files to a personal drive over two days in December 2023, saved eight more on Christmas Day, and moved documents onto a flash drive the next day, according to the judgment. Cyara ended his employment in January 2024. The following day, both sides signed a settlement deed in which he agreed to keep to his confidentiality, intellectual property and restraint obligations. Weeks later, he began doing sales consultancy work for Hypertech - a company chasing the same government testing work he had handled at Cyara.
Cyara's case...
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