Chipmaking startup Rivos is now countersuing Apple, claiming that the tech large forces workers into restrictive contracts designed to stop them from looking for employment elsewhere.
In Could 2022, Apple launched a lawsuit in opposition to “stealth” startup Rivos, claiming it poached engineers to try to steal confidential paperwork and commerce secrets and techniques about its chip designs.
Now, Rivos is countersuing, alleging that Apple forces workers to signal “overbroad” non-compete agreements that will stop them from working elsewhere.
The countersuit, noticed by Bloomberg, says that Apple’s restrictive agreements are designed to intimidate workers who may need to depart Apple to work elsewhere.
Rivos says that Apple’s non-disclosure and non-solicit agreements are far too broad and canopy “something ‘discovered’ in the course of the course of employment, regardless whether or not it’s a commerce secret.”
Rivos additionally says that Apple permits its workers to retailer work paperwork in iCloud and iMessage, however the firm would not examine the information and messages upon leaving.
Apple’s preliminary lawsuit in opposition to Rivos alleged that two former workers had taken gigabytes of recordsdata from Apple, purportedly for use by Rivos. The engineers allegedly took a trove of 1000’s of paperwork, which lined confidential inner tasks and a few associated to Apple’s SoC designs.
In November 2022, Apple settled a lawsuit in opposition to Simon Lancaster, a former supplies lead who allegedly stole commerce secrets and techniques and shared them with a journalist.
In April, Apple filed to drop a lawsuit in opposition to Nuvia co-founder Gerrard Williams III. The lawsuit accused the previous chip architect of a breach of contract and poaching workers.
