Big Law
Apple Sues Startup Rivos Over Trade-Secrets Theft
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.
