P&G has filed a lawsuit against rival paper maker Georgia-Pacific, which has poached one of the company's employees, David Raines, who was responsible for P&G's paper-making technology.
P&G's paper brands include Charmin toilet paper and Bounty paper towels, well known for their naff ads, which have picked up something a cult following.
In a statement, P&G says that the employee has "substantial knowledge of critical company trade secrets and confidential information relating to P&G's Through-Air Drying paper-making technology and processes. That information will directly benefit Georgia-Pacific in their new TAD paper-making operations, which are now under construction".
Jim Johnson, chief legal officer at P&G, said: "We can't sit by and watch years of hard work and creative thinking go to benefit a direct competitor. We have no issue with this former employee working for Georgia-Pacific in any of their conventional paper-making operations. But his assignment in the very areas where our trade secrets are critical is not right."
However, Georgia-Pacific, which makes the Brawny paper towel brand and Quilted Northern toilet paper, has said it is taking "all appropriate steps to ensure this employee does not reveal any Procter & Gamble trade secrets".
Last year, the shoe was on the other foot for P&G, which had to make an estimated $10m (拢6.3m) payout to Unilever after a corporate intelligence firm, hired by P&G to find out about its haircare business, employed tactics that included going through Unilever's rubbish looking for information.
The Georgia-Pacific case has been filed in Cincinnati Federal District court.
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