Recently revealed in the market, the chip design startup has been sued by Apple

Apple has always shown itself that they are not in the dark. The NUVIA startup, founded by former semiconductor leaders of Apple, was only revealed publicly in late November and quickly became its next rival in court.

According to a lawsuit filed with the Santa Clara Supreme Court in California, USA, the Cupertino technology giant accuses Gerad Williams, CEO of startup NUVIA, also his former employee, of breaching a labor contract with Apple. while establishing his new company. Earlier this year, William left Apple to form NUVIA.

According to The Register report, Apple’s first complaint filed in August was that Mr. Williams ” was bragging about setting up a new company with the technology he was working on at Apple, that he believed that Apple “needs it” and that he believes Apple will have no choice but to buy back (NUVIA) “.

The allegation was that Mr. Williams knew he was doing something wrong and that he told his colleagues that his new business would operate in “stealth mode.” As a result, in a recent lawsuit filed in Santa Clara court, Apple more firmly confirmed that Mr. Williams violated the terms of his labor contract by ” secretly using Apple resources. to form a company that competes with Apple itself . ”

Although it was established in February, NUVIA did not officially appear until the end of November with the announcement of raising 53 million USD in Series A. Fundraising round. Other upstarts include John Bruno and Manu Gulati. All three are former Apple chip designers who contributed to the creation of the prestigious A-series processors for iPhones.

Mr. Manu Gulati (left), Mr. Gerard Williams (middle), Mr. John Bruno (right), the three founders of NUVIA chip design startup.

NUVIA rejected Apple’s lawsuit

Prior to Apple’s allegations, NUVIA also countered that the terms of Apple’s labor contract related to this incident were not valid under California law. Therefore, NUVIA said that Mr. Williams was allowed to plan and recruit personnel for his new business while still working at Apple.

In addition, Mr. Williams also countered that Apple had violated its privacy by illegally collecting and monitoring text messages he sent to the co-founder, as well as other Apple employees. . Indeed, Apple’s first complaint was based on the collection of his conversations from 2015 to the present.

In his accusation, William said: ” To intimidate any Apple employee who dared to think about leaving the company, Apple’s complaint indicates that they are monitoring and monitoring the call list and the news. text messages on employee phones, a scary and serious breach of privacy . ” And so, Mr. Williams said, these messages and call lists cannot be used as evidence.

Neither Apple nor NUVIA have commented on the case yet.

Refer to Gizmodo