Apple has accused a company of stealing its trade secrets. In a complaint filed Friday, the tech giant alleges that Mountain View, California-based “stealth mode” startup Rivos recently led a “coordinated campaign” to poach employees from Apple’s chip design division .
according to ReutersAs the first publication to report on the lawsuit, Apple alleges that at least two former employees brought gigabytes of classified data to Rivos.The information the men allegedly stole included presentations detailing unreleased chip designs, according to reports. Bloomberg.
“Apple has reason to believe that Rivos directed at least some Apple employees to download and install applications for encrypted communications (such as the Signal application) prior to further communication with them,” the company said in its complaint. We’ve reached out to Apple for comment.
If the case moves forward, it could attract a lot of attention, as Waymo sued Uber in 2017 for stealing confidential information about its self-driving technology. After years of litigation, the case ended with Uber agreeing to a $245 million settlement and a court sentenced Anthony Lewandowski, an engineer at the center of the dispute, to 18 months in prison before former President Donald Trump issued a pardon.
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