Apple has reached a possible agreement with Rivos, the Mountain View startup that it accused in 2022 of poaching its employees and stealing its trade secrets. In the presentation of the companies seen by Bloomberg and Reuters, told the United States District Court for the Northern District of California that they signed an agreement that “potentially resolves the case.” Their agreement would allow Apple to conduct a forensic examination of Rivos' systems as well as its activities.
When the iPhone maker sued Rivos, it said the startup was leading a “coordinated campaign” to hire employees from its chip design division. Apple also accused the defendant of instructing employees he hired to steal presentations and other proprietary information from unreleased iPhone chip designs that cost billions of dollars to develop. Rivos counter-defendant Apple last year, accusing the largest company of restricting employees' ability to work elsewhere and hampering the growth of new startups through the use of anti-competitive measures.
Court fired Apple filed trade secret claims against Rivos in April 2023, although the company was allowed to file a revised complaint. apple now established with its six former employees filing a countersuit against the iPhone maker along with Rivos after they dropped their mutual lawsuits last month. Both companies are now asking the court to stay their cases until March 15, when they hope the deal will be completed.
