Apple has sued Rivos, a Santa Clara-based “stealth-mode” semiconductor firm, and two former employees, Indian-origin Bhasi Cathamana and Ricky Wayne, for allegedly stealing trade secrets in the development of the Is chip series.
Rivos allegedly ran an “organized operation” to entice Apple employees and persuade them to copy private papers before departing, according to a complaint filed in California by the iPhone maker.
Apple hired Cathamana for roughly 8 years, from September 2013 to August 2021.
Cathamana was a CPU implementation engineer at Apple, responsible for handling the CPU design for Apple’s SoCs (System on Chips),” according to the lawsuit.
Kathamana, an Osmania University graduate, was in charge of designing and creating proprietary and trade secret physical structures for Apple’s ARM-based SoCs, among other things.
According to the lawsuit, Cathamana moved a series of spreadsheets, presentations, and text files to an external USB drive labeled “APPLE WORK DOCS” before departing Apple in August 2021.
Wayne is also accused of accessing confidential Apple information, including “files relevant to Apple’s unreleased SoC design, and then making a copy of the hard disc of the company-issued computer immediately before departing the firm.”
“Apple has some leave with choices owing to the massive volume of data, the highly sensitive nature of that data, and the fact that these people are now doing comparable work,” says one employee. activities to a rival with access to some of Apple’s most precious trade secrets,” the lawsuit stated.
Rivos was established in May 2021 with the goal of developing a full-stack computing solution based on custom-designed low instruction set computer-based SoCs to compete with Apple’s ARM SoCs.
“Since June 2021, Rivos has employed roughly 40 former Apple employees.” Rivos is targeting Apple engineers again this month, with additional exits. Most of these former Apple employees were design engineers, which were developing Apple’s state-of-the-art proprietary and trade secret SoC design,” Apple said in its lawsuit.
Rivos allegedly urged employees to duplicate work-related papers before departing, according to the lawsuit.
“According to the lawsuit, Rivos “initiated a coordinated campaign to target Apple workers with access to trade secret information about Apple’s ownership and SoC design.”
Many of the Apple employees that joined Rivos were “entrusted by Apple with its most sensitive trade secret SoC design and technology,” according to the company.
Apple claims that “many people have taken Apple’s proprietary and trade secret information with them,” and is seeking monetary damages.
