The Case Between Apple and Rivos Has Been Concluded: Here is the Decision!

Whenever Apple is involved in a lawsuit involving theft of trade secrets or infringement of patents, it is not always the defendant.

Reuters, for example, reported that Apple plans to settle a lawsuit it filed against chip startup Rivos accusing it of stealing the Cupertino-based tech giant’s trade secrets.

Both Apple and Rivos mentioned the settlement in a joint filing filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Both Parties Reached Agreement

The deal will allow Apple to examine Rivos’ systems and recover confidential information it finds. Both companies stated in the filing that they “signed an agreement that potentially resolves the case.”

The application also asks the Court to continue to stay this case and cancel all stays pending until March 15, 2024; On this date, the parties expect these activities to be completed.

Apple first sued Rivos in 2022, accusing the Mountain View company of using confidential Apple information to hire dozens of Apple engineers and create “system on chip” (SoC) technology to compete with Apple. SoCs place multiple computer components, such as the central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU), on a single chip.

Apple complained in its lawsuit that it spent billions of dollars and more than 10 years of research to develop SoC designs that it said “revolutionized the world of personal and mobile computing.” Rivos, however, denied Apple’s claims and claimed that its manufacturer “sought to punish Rivos and any Apple employees who might want to work there from the moment Apple learned of the promising startup.” Rivos filed a lawsuit against Apple last September, accusing the technology giant of “unfair competition”.

In the original lawsuit, Apple alleged that “beginning in June 2021, Rivos launched a coordinated campaign targeting Apple employees who had access to Apple’s proprietary and trade secret information about Apple’s SoC designs.” Apple accused former employees of using USB flash drives to transfer data to their personal laptops.

Also ironically, some information was stolen from Apple using Apple’s AirDrop feature, which allows files to be sent to the personal iPhones of employees who left Apple for Rivos.