Chip startup Rivos is countersuing Apple, claiming the tech big forces staff to signal restrictive agreements that stop them from working elsewhere and stifle up-and-coming firms that rent its workers, experiences Bloomberg.
The countersuit filed Friday by Rivos and 6 ex-Apple staff in a San Jose federal court docket “escalates an acrimonious commerce secret feud that started when Apple final yr sued Rivos and former staff who joined the startup,” the article provides. Rivos is pushing again by asking the court docket to rule that Apple’s “overbroad” non-disclosure and non-solicit agreements are unenforceable.
Apple sued the startup final yr after it employed quite a few staff from Apple’s chip design unit. Rivos final week laid off practically two dozen staff, 6% of workers, and its leaders made feedback to remaining workers implying it had restricted entry to new capital. Its co-founders individually instructed some workers that Apple’s lawsuit in opposition to the corporate and several other of its ex-Apple staff had affected its fundraising course of, based on The Data.
On August 14, it was reported by The Spokesman-Overview {that a} US choose had cleared the best way for Apple’s lawsuit in opposition to Rivos to maneuver ahead, saying Apple had “sufficiently recognized” a commerce secret it accuses Rivos of stealing, based on.
U.S. District Decide Edward Davila in San Jose mentioned there was sufficient proof of “adequate hurt” by Rivos and three former staff for the lawsuit to proceed. The choose rejected Rivos’s request to dismiss a Defend Commerce Secrets and techniques act declare in addition to a breach of contract declare in opposition to 5 former Apple staff. Davila additionally allowed Apple to file amended claims.
Apple’s lawsuit — filed in Could 2022 — says Mountain View, California-based Rivos has employed over 40 of its former staff previously yr to work on competing “system-on-chip” (SoC) know-how, and that a minimum of two former Apple engineers took gigabytes of confidential data with them to Rivos.
