Apple withdraws lawsuit against former employee who launched Nuvia, a semiconductor development company acquired by Qualcomm

Gerard Williams, co-founder of Nuvia, a semiconductor development company acquired by Qualcomm for $ 1.4 billion (about 190 billion yen), is a person who has worked as a microprocessor architect at Apple. Apple filed a lawsuit against Mr. Williams, but it is clear that this has been withdrawn.

Apple Drops Suit Against Ex-Chip Exec Williams Who Started Nuvia - Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-04-29/apple-drops-suit-against-ex-chip-exec-williams-who-started-nuvia

Apple quietly ends its lawsuit against Nuvia co-founder
https://appleinsider.com/articles/23/04/29/apple-drops-employment-lawsuit-against-ex-chip-architect

Mr. Williams, who was in charge of processor development for iPhone and iPad as Apple's chief architect, retired from Apple in 2019 and launched a chip development company called Nuvia with former Apple engineers. In response, Apple sued Williams, alleging that he violated his employment contract with the company and his duty of loyalty.

Apple sues former developer of iPhone and iPad processors who established a new company after retirement and raised 5.8 billion yen - GIGAZINE

The problem was, 'Even if you are an employee, can you plan a competing venture during your tenure?' Apple did not sue Nuvia or any other founding members other than Mr. Williams, nor did it claim that Nuvia stole the company's intellectual property or trade secrets.

Apple fights former employees in court over ``Can employees plan competing ventures while working?''-GIGAZINE

In the lawsuit, Mr. Williams denied Apple's allegations, claiming that ``Apple cannot claim a breach of loyalty because it was previously blocked by the California Unified Trade Secrets Act,'' and withdrew Apple's lawsuit. requested the court to do so. However, the court dismissed this and allowed the case to continue.

However, Bloomberg reports that Apple filed a lawsuit in San Jose, California state court in the fifth week of April 2023. According to reports, the application does not state why Apple has withdrawn the lawsuit. Bloomberg has asked Apple to comment on why the lawsuit was withdrawn, but there was no response at the time of writing.

In addition, Apple-related media Appleinsider said, ``In the United States, it is almost impossible to exercise non-compete clauses , because your mind is your own. It may be the master's, but if your contract of employment is terminated, your ideas will be yours again.This is because slavery is legally, morally and ethically wrong Indeed, Mr. Williams may have been fascinated by Apple's excellent technology and worked while being educated at the company.While being hired by Apple, Mr. Williams' job was to learn Apple's technology , may have been to become an expert at using it.But you can also do your own thing with what you learn.Williams is not looking for change or promotion within Apple, but rather I chose to set up a new business independently with my own idea.I think this is a very good thing.' I'm here.

Others cite the example of Roger Ross, who led the development of the Motorola 68030 and RISC- based Motorola 88000 microprocessor families at Motorola, and then left Motorola to launch Ross Technology in the same industry. Motorola tried to invoke a non-compete clause to interfere with Mr. Ross' business, but Mr. Ross sued and won many times. In the case of Mr. Williams this time, there were also comments welcoming this because the company that branded the non-competition clause was defeated.