Yahoo! secures temporary restraining order for MForma lawsuit

The legal battle over alleged theft of trade secrets by former Yahoo employees appears to be progressing rapidly after a California judge issued a temporary restraining order against seven MForma employees.

The lawsuit, which was filed earlier this week, alleges that a number of Yahoo! engineers copied masses of business data, design information and proprietary source code upon leaving the Internet giant - with the intention of using the information in their new role at mobile entertainment firm MForma.

In a statement issued this week, MForma CEO Jonathan Sacks fervently denied the accusations, accusing Yahoo of fabricating a conspiracy.

"We are very disappointed that Yahoo chose to use litigation against our small company as well as its own former engineers to punish and intimidate," Sacks stated.

"While we understand it's always unpleasant to lose talent, Yahoo has gone too far in wrongfully accusing us of a conspiracy that doesn't exist. If they are having problems retaining engineers, they should be looking at the internal sources of employee dissatisfaction rather than trying to cover that up with this legal action."

Sacks maintains that there was never any planned or executed theft of company secrets, and that the engineers - all of whom have extensive experience with numerous firms including Yahoo - will continue in their roles at MForma whilst complying with the judge's rulings.