Apple Sues 'Stealth' Startup Rivos Over Chip Trade-Secrets Theft
(Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. accused “stealth-mode” startup Rivos Inc. in a lawsuit of poaching its engineers to steal trade secrets used to develop its homegrown chip designs that make iPhones more powerful.
Rivos, which has hired dozens of Apple engineers, began a “coordinated campaign” in June 2021 to target Apple's employees, the Cupertino, California-based company said.
The former employees left to join Rivos after stealing “highly-sensitive” proprietary and trade secret information about Apple's “system-on-chip” designs, including its M1 laptop and A15 mobile phone chips, according to the complaint filed in federal court in San Jose, California.
“Apple has devoted billions of dollars to this critical work,” the company said.
Two former Apple engineers who joined Rivos for “parallel roles” were named as defendants in the suit for allegedly breaching intellectual property agreements they had signed. The agreements required them to refrain from copying confidential proprietary information during their time at the company and return such materials before they left, Apple claims.
Rivos and Apple didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
The complaint against Rivos is the latest by Apple targeting ex-employees who left to join startups.
Apple in 2019 sued a former chip executive, Gerard Williams III, for allegedly betraying the company by launching a startup that develops processors for data centers after luring its employees to join his venture. That dispute is headed for trial in San Jose state court in October 2023.
Read More: Apple Accused by Ex-Exec It's Suing of Poaching His Staff
Some Apple employees hired by Rivos transferred gigabytes of trade secret data, including presentations on current and unreleased chip designs, onto USB drives and their personal storage drives before leaving, the company claims.
“Apple has reason to believe that Rivos instructed at least some Apple employees to download and install apps for encrypted communications (e.g., the Signal app) before communicating with them further,” the technology giant said in its complaint.
The lawsuit was reported earlier by Reuters.
The case is Apple Inc. v. Rivos Inc., 22-cv-2637, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Jose).
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
-
Signature Play: The Classic Cocktail Is Dead. Or Is It?
Classic cocktails are disappearing from India's cocktail menus. But they're still being ordered, taught to bartenders and borrowed from. So, who's really having the last drink?
-
A New Samvat Wishlist: Inclusive Prosperity And Human Development
India has strengthened its economic foundations through infrastructure, digital access and enterprise. Its next growth chapter must deepen productivity, create better livelihoods and widen participation in prosperity.
-
Love, Sex Aur Dhokha: The Audacious Plot To Spy On Jensen Huang
A Taipei dinner, a Singapore chip buyer and a suspected Chinese asset: inside the alleged spy operation that got close to NVIDIA's Jensen Huang.
-
Ten Things I Learnt This Samvat
Patience can be a trap. Cheap stocks can stay cheap. Leverage can wipe you out. What did Samvat 2082 teach us? Niraj Shah writes on 10 lessons from the year gone by.
-
Talking Points This Week: Tech Nerves, FII Buying, And A Faraway Banking Shock
The global markets are not shining this Diwali. The exception in the large markets is, India.
-
Midterm Rally Lasted A Day. The Hard Reality Of A Divided US May Last Two Years | Opinion
Between a contested AI boom, a debt ceiling that arrives in 2027 and a president with every incentive to act alone, the next two years may prove more volatile than the first day's rally suggests.
-
Blue Wave Will Derail the AI Trade but Won't Dismantle the AI Era | Unhedged Position
The Democrats' sweep of the US Congress will see politics collide with economic forces both over the long and short term.
-
It's Time To Take The GST Council's Bet On Trust Global
Payment records can prove India's services exports, and clear, proportionate rules can bring foreign digital sellers into the tax net.
-
Opinion | India at 38: From Innovation Overperformer to Innovation Powerhouse
India now has 453 VC-backed deep science startups, 18 of them late-stage, after 117 percent growth since 2020. Laurus Labs, at USD 9.3 billion, is the most valuable deep science company in any middle-income economy outside China.
