Apple has reached a settlement with System on a Chip (SoC) company Rivos, the company Apple sued in 2022 over the theft of the Cupertino company’s trade secrets. Bloomberg reports that Rivos will submit to a forensic examination of its systems to remove any confidential Apple information.
The companies told the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California that they had “signed an agreement that potentially settles the case,” and that the agreement allows Apple to examine Rivos’ systems and recover any confidential information.
Rivos hired more than 40 employees from Apple, including several former high-ranking engineers. Apple’s lawsuit accused Rivos of poaching employees and stealing chip trade secrets through those employees. Rivos is working on SoCs to compete with Apple’s A-series and M-series chips.
SoCs are integrated circuits that contain several computer components on a single chip, including central processing units and graphic processing units, as well as other specialized components.
Apple claimed that at least two engineers hired by Rivos used USB drives and AirDrop to steal “gigabytes of sensitive SoC specifications and design files” during their last few days at Apple. The employees also allegedly stole presentations on unreleased SoCs.
Apple asked for an injunction against the employees to prevent them from continuing to leak sensitive data. The iPhone maker also asked for compensation for the loss and Rivos’ “unjust enrichment.” Apple was also looking for a “reasonable royalty rate” from Rivos on future products.
The companies are working to finalize their settlement by March 15.
