Apple has decided to settle a lawsuit with semiconductor startup Rivos, which it accused of poaching employees and using confidential data. The lawsuit was filed nearly two years ago in May 2022, and both parties appear to have agreed to settle the lawsuit out of court.
Rivos is what’s called a “stealth mode” startup, which means it operates in a very secret way. Therefore, the terms of the settlement may not be immediately known. It’s likely that Apple doesn’t want any more personal data leaked, and that could be another reason.
Apple settles lawsuit over possible chipset intellectual property theft
Bloomberg found court filings stating that Apple and Livos have decided to settle the matter. In its original lawsuit, Apple said, “Beginning in June 2021, Livos began a systematic campaign targeting Apple employees with access to Apple’s proprietary and trade secret information regarding Apple’s SoC designs.” was.
Apple accused Ribos of running a “coordinated campaign targeting Apple employees with access to Apple’s proprietary and trade secret information about Apple’s SoC designs.” It appears that the engineers who left took with them a large amount of Apple’s chipset design data.
The settlement appears to include Apple ensuring that Ribos erases all of Apple’s sensitive data. “This agreement provides for the recovery of Apple’s confidential information based on forensic examination of the Rivos system and other activities,” according to a filing in federal court in San Jose, California. “The parties are currently moving forward with that process,” according to documents filed in federal court. ”
This feels like a distinctly different approach than the one Apple recently took to the theft of Apple Car trade secrets. The process described in the application will likely be intensive, as Apple guarantees that all data will not be used without consent.
