Reuters reports HP is suing its ex-Asia enterprise sales head to stop him revealing allegedly stolen secrets after joining Oracle.

The lawsuit, filed in Santa Clara, alleges that Adrian Jones was about to be fired last February over invalid expense claims and an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate. Jones jumped ship to Oracle before he was pushed, allegedly taking hundreds of documents and emails on a USB memory device.

Jones, who has a strong channel background, is now the SVP for Asia Pacific and Japan at Oracle. When he resigned from HP the company said he had left to follow new opportunities and spend more time with his family.

He had only been in his Asia post for HP since November 2010. Previously he'd run channels for HP in the Americas.

With HP and Oracle fighting an intense marketing battle after Oracle recruited fired ex-HP CEO Mark Hurd (over invalid expense claims and an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate/contractor), this is one more brick in the bitterly divisive wall between the two formerly co-operating companies.

The lawsuit specifies that all the stolen documents and mails should be returned and damages should be awarded. ®