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TECHNOLOGYFriday 12 January 2018
Fired Google engineer’s suit
alleges reverse discrimination
mostly white and Asian
In this May 26, 2016 file photo, people walk past an James Damore, right, a former Google engineer fired in 2017 men in engineering jobs
illuminated logo for Huawei at a launch event for the Huawei after writing a memo about the biological differences between and other high-paying po-
MateBook in Beijing. men and women, speaks at a news conference while his sitions requiring computer
attorney, Harmeet Dhillon, listens, Monday, Jan. 8, 2018, in San programming skills.
Associated Press Francisco. As a remedy, the compa-
nies say they have been
Huawei wins China Associated Press aggressively hiring women,
patent lawsuit blacks and Hispanics, but
against rival Samsung they have barely titled the
scales so far.
By KELVIN CHAN The decision by the Shen- Dhillon is hoping to use
AP Business Writer Damore’s case to prove
HONG KONG (AP) — Chi- zhen Intermediate Court that Google has set illegal
nese tech giant Huawei quotas that discriminate
won a patent infringe- is the latest in a series of against white men like Da-
ment lawsuit against more.
South Korea smartphone deepening patent dis- By MICHAEL LIEDTKE force. The complaint also seeks to
rival Samsung on Thurs- AP Technology Writer be certified as a class ac-
day, according to infor- putes between the Asian SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The lawsuit was filed in tion that will represent all
mation released by a Chi- A Google engineer fired current and former Google
nese court. smartphone makers, for writing a memo ques- Santa Clara County Su- workers who believe they
The court ruled in the Chi- tioning Google’s commit- were discriminated against
nese company’s favor which have filed lawsuits ment to diversity has filed perior Court and comes during the past four years
over two patents involving a lawsuit alleging his ouster for expressing conservative
fourth generation phone against each other in the was driven by a corporate five months after Google viewpoints, a group that
technology, according to culture that discriminates also could include women.
a notice released through United States and China against white men and fired Damore for writing a Google said it looks for-
the court’s WeChat ac- people with conservative ward to defending itself
count and video of the in recent years. views, including supporters 10-page memo entitled against Damore’s accusa-
trial. The judge ordered of President Donald Trump. tions in court.
Samsung Electronics to Huawei Technologies The 161-page complaint “Google’s Ideological Dhillon said she has heard
immediately stop selling filed Monday on behalf of from dozens of current and
or manufacturing prod- Ltd.’s headquarters is in James Damore and anoth- Echo Chamber .” former workers at Google
ucts using the technology er former Google engineer and other major technol-
and to pay a small court Shenzhen, in southern Chi- depicts Google as an elitist In that missive, Damore ogy companies who say
fee. The ruling did not cite company that shuns em- they fear being ostracized
specific phone models. na across the border from ployees who dare to devi- criticized Google for push- or threatened by manag-
ate from a liberal agenda ers and co-workers if they
Hong Kong. The company embraced by its manage- ing mentoring and diversity express conservative views
ment and most of its work- or publicly support Trump
is the dominant player programs and for “alienat- — an unpopular figure
throughout most of the San
in China’s smartphone ing conservatives.” Francisco Bay Area.
“You shouldn’t have to
market, though globally it He also blamed biological prove you didn’t vote for
the president to get a job
trails Samsung and Apple. differences for the paucity at Google,” Dhillon said.
Damore declined to say
The court said it ruled in of women in tech. whether he voted for
Trump in the 2016 presiden-
Huawei’s favor after find- Damore, 28, says he sub- tial election.
Google never has given
ing that Samsung “mali- mitted early versions of his any indication that it fired
Damore for his political
ciously delayed negotia- memo to Google’s human views. Instead CEO Sundar
Pichai said Damore had
tions” that began in July resources department violated the company’s
code of conduct “by ad-
2011 and was “obviously without being reprimand- vancing harmful gender
stereotypes in our work-
at fault.” ed. place.”
After his memo was widely
Samsung said in a state.q Just a few days after Da- circulated, Damore said
he was verbally bullied and
more posted the memo threatened by co-workers.
In an Aug. 4 email includ-
on an internal message ed in Damore’s lawsuit, a
Google engineer wrote,
board, it was leaked to a “You’re a misogynist and a
terrible person. q
technology blog. Google
fired him Aug. 7 amid an
uproar among workers of-
fended by its themes.
Now, Damore and his law-
yer, former Republican
Party official Harmeet Dhil-
lon, are retaliating with a
lawsuit that puts a new
twist on Silicon Valley’s lack
of diversity — an issue that
has been a prickly subject
in the technology industry
for years.
Google, Facebook, Apple
and their peers have all
publicly acknowledged
their workforces are out of
step with the rest of soci-
ety because they employ
