Google announced their NFC-based mobile payment program last week, and shortly after, someone already has the gut to sue Google regarding this. Who is it? Well, it’s PayPal.

Bloomberg reports that PayPal is suing Google and two of its executives, claiming that the search giant has misappropriated trade secrets from its mobile payment business. The company claims that Osama Bedier, a former PayPal exec now employed by Google, has stolen confidential information from PayPal and is now leading Google’s efforts to “bring point of sale technologies and services to retailers on its behalf.”

“Bedier and Google have misappropriated PayPal trade secrets by disclosing them within Google and to major retailers,” Bloomberg cites PayPal’s suit as saying.

Also named in the suit is Stephanie Tilenius, who also left her position at PayPal to go and work for Google. Tilenius supposedly breached her contract by recruiting Bedier and Bedier is thought to have hired away PayPal employees too.

And for all this spitting around, Google only has this to say:

“Silicon Valley was built on the ability of individuals to use their knowledge and expertise to seek better employment opportunities, an idea recognized by both California law and public policy,” Google spokesman Aaron Zamost is quoted as saying. “We respect trade secrets, and will defend ourselves against these claims.”

SOURCE via Bloomberg