NetApp's legal battle against its former CTO for breach of contract and allegedly pilfering trade secrets has been dismissed by a court in Florida.

Jonsi Stefánsson had served as NetApp's CTO beginning in 2022 before departing in September 2025 for Vast Data. But just two months later, the executive would find himself the subject of a 39-page lawsuit alleging he used his insider access to steal the company’s intellectual property and form a direct competitor, which, after just 10 weeks of incorporation, would find itself acquired by Vast Data.

But in a 41-page order published late last month, Judge Julie Sneed of the District Court for the Middle District of Florida dismissed the case, ruling that under the mandatory forum selection clause in Stefánsson's employment contract, any dispute must be litigated in Iceland rather than Florida.

Stefánsson lived in Iceland and joined NetApp back in August 2017 following its $51 million acquisition of Greenqloud.

The court held that Stefánsson's employment agreement and his "proprietary information, inventions, and non-solicitation agreement" (PIIA) signed following the acquisition had to be read together as one single contract. As such, the mandatory clause in the employment contract giving “exclusive jurisdiction” to Iceland overruled the less strict clause in the PIIA, which only allowed lawsuits where Stefánsson worked at the time of signing.

As a result, NetApp’s claims of breach of contract and trade secret misappropriation ultimately fell within the clause's scope because each concerned Stefánsson's performance of his contractual obligations.

The judge further rejected NetApp's attempt to keep the case in Florida on public interest grounds, finding that a dispute between a Delaware-registered company and an Icelandic citizen, governed by a foreign forum selection clause, did not constitute a sufficiently localized controversy to override the parties' contractual agreement.

Judge Sneed found that NetApp's own expert didn't support its arguments that Icelandic courts lacked authority, and dismissed the argument that Iceland's legal system was inadequate to hear the case simply because it might lack certain procedural tools, such as broad discovery or preliminary injunctions.

NetApp has appealed the ruling. A company spokesperson saidin a statement: "The Florida court has only dismissed the lawsuit without prejudice solely on venue grounds, without addressing the merits of the case. NetApp has already appealed the decision and is advancing separate legal actions in Iceland to ensure these matters are addressed directly and decisive."

The man behind the red stapler

NetApp acquired Greenqloud in a deal to augment its efforts in cloud data services. Stefánsson joined the firm as VP of cloud services, before being named CTO and VP of cloud in 2018, and then CTO and SVP in the summer of 2022.

Upon joining, Stefánsson signed those two aforementioned agreements while he was still in Iceland, which included stipulations that he should refrain from soliciting NetApp’s employees should he leave the company.

Stefánsson would work in Iceland until January 2023, when he relocated to Orlando, Florida. Part of the agreement for him to relocate included the termination of his employment agreement.

Having formally separated from the company in June 2025, he returned to Iceland to set up Red Stapler, an allegedly conflicting startup (in NetApp’s eyes) and an apparent nod to the 1999 Mike Judge comedy "Office Space," in which a long-suffering employee has his beloved red stapler repeatedly confiscated by management as a symbol of corporate indifference, before ultimately exacting his revenge.

NetApp alleged that prior to exiting, Stefánsson had “wide-ranging access” to its most confidential information, including “proprietary innovations, intellectual property, and business relationships, including exclusive insight into [its] relationships and agreements with its hyperscaler business partners.”

But around two months after formation, Stefánsson would find another of his company’s subjects to a takeover, with Vast Data snapping up Red Stapler for an undisclosed fee. The exec would then take on the role of GM of cloud solutions at Vast.

Among the allegations raised in the suit against Stefánsson were claims he and Eiríkur Sveinn Hrafnsson, NetApp’s then Cloud Business Unit CTO, were developing software for Red Stapler while they were still at the company, and that the startup “could not have developed its own technology in such a short time.”

NetApp has been reached for comment.