Apple 'Suffocates the Creation of New Technologies,' Claims Former Chip Designer Being Sued for Breach of Contract

[MacRumors]

Apple has been in an ongoing legal fight with Gerard Williams III, who worked at Apple until February 2019 when he left to start up a new company called Nuvia with other Apple developers.

Williams was Apple's lead chip designer, working on the A7 to A12X chips that Apple used in its mobile devices, and his new company develops processors for use in data centers. Apple first sued Williams in August 2019, claiming that his contracts with Apple prevented him from engaging in business activities that are directly related to Apple's business.

Since then, Williams has claimed that Apple invaded his privacy and monitored his texts, while Apple complained that Williams had been planning and developing Nuvia while still at Apple, and also soliciting Apple employees.

In January, Williams tried to get the lawsuit brought against him by Apple rejected by the court, but he was unsuccessful, and now he's back with a new claim that Apple has been recruiting engineers from Nuvia.

According to Bloomberg, Williams says that Apple is aiming to lure his staff away and is also preventing its own employees from leaving to pursue their own ventures. He claims that Apple's lawsuit against him for breach of contract aims to "suffocate the creation of new technologies and solutions by a new business, and to diminish the freedom of entrepreneurs to seek out more fulfilling work."

He goes on to accuse Apple of improperly deterring employees "from making even preliminary and legally protected preparations to form a new business - whether competitive or otherwise."

There has been no final word on whether the case will progress to trial yet, though a judge has already dismissed Apple's bid for punitive damages against Williams as Apple failed to show how Williams intentionally tried to harm the company by being disloyal.

Article Link: Apple 'Suffocates the Creation of New Technologies,' Claims Former Chip Designer Being Sued for Breach of Contract

 

[Gasu E.]

I've encounter these types of complaints in my previous high tech career and my general observation is: there is no general observation. You really need to know the intimate details of the specific case-- sometime it's the company that is in the right, and sometimes it's the ex-employee.

 

[Baymowe335]

I work at a Fortune 15 company. This is almost always an example of sour grapes.

 

[realtuner]

Funny he says Apple suffocates new technologies when they have, by far, the most advanced mobile processors on the planet.

Edit: Seems he’s talking about Apple suffocating his company/ideas.

 

[coolfactor]

I can see how this can happen, but at the same time, Apple is providing a huge stage for many engineers to do the best work of their lives. Tough one. Now it sounds like this guy has lost everything. No job and struggling new company to realize his vision? Maybe he'll go work for Samsung.

 

[CarlJ]

He claims that Apple's lawsuit against him for breach of contract aims to "suffocate the creation of new technologies and solutions by a new business, and to diminish the freedom of entrepreneurs to seek out more fulfilling work."

With, admittedly, not having any details on this besides the MR article, offhand this... sounds like he's complaining that it's terrible that he has to abide by the terms of a non-compete clause in a contract that he willing signed to take the job at Apple.

 

[Mr. Dee]

So Apples policy is if you previously worked at the company, you should go bake cookies for a living and maybe work on a farm?

I believe him too, because I was following a thread about former Apple employees who were nowhere near this guys level of power, they couldn’t even develop an app on the side, have a YouTube channel or do anything related to tech outside of Apple. Sorry, but Apple needs to be reigned in, Steve Jobs use to work at HP and so many other employees who worked at different tech companies before joining Apple.

The fact that you can’t do it the other way is ridiculous.

 

[MRwonderful1]

I love how all these companies yap about how unfair Apple is...make your own sandbox then. Where were they when Apple was on its death kneel... More boo hoo!

 

[Freida]

Apple doesn't do business in the area where he wants to go so this is simply Apple being *******s.
Apple doesn't do data centers so this is a joke. I hope he wins

 

[1144557]

Apple has without argument THE best mobile processors. Suffocates creation? Sounds more like sour grapes to me.

 

[Bin Cook]

Apple doesn't do business in the area where he wants to go so this is simply Apple being *******s.
Apple doesn't do data centers so this is a joke. I hope he wins

nice to see at least one person not bending over and taking the corporate pounding

 

[WiseAJ]

If the guy was using his company issued phone while employed at Apple or texting those still at Apple's work numbers there is no privacy. If he was using his own personal phone and communicating to others personal numbers there is no way Apple could legally have obtained those texts unless the other people voluntarily shared them with Apple.

 

[Somian]

they can’t prevent you from competing after you leave the company, but they can prevent you from competing while you work at Apple.

Competing with Apple can include soliciting other employeess to compete after leaving apple. I think that’s what they’re arguing.

it’s hard for tech people to become founders because of their salaried work contract under nonsensical laws that argue that you’re always working for your employer and as such, any preparation to found a company in your free time could already be considered competition and breach of contract.

If the guy was using his company issued phone while employed at Apple or texting those still at Apple's work numbers there is no privacy. If he was using his own personal phone and communicating to others personal numbers there is no way Apple could legally have obtained those texts unless the other people voluntarily shared them with Apple.

Some companies may reserve the right to monitor anything that’s going on on any device you’re using for work purposes but at the same time not offer a company phone. This means that employees will have an obligation to unlock their personal phones upon request by the company if only a single work related text message has been sent to that phone (because then it’s used for business purposes and such subject to search).

 

[Greenmeenie]

I love Apple. But they are becoming the evil they once fought against. They use to be the pirates, now they are the pirated.

 

[needsomecoffee]

There is an incredible interview with Woz in which he talks a lot about how being able to work on the first Apple while at HP was super critical. (Jobs also had his own job not just working on Apple.) Woz went about this the right way, offering HP the opportunity first (they denied). Ironic, though, that Apple is now so focused on denying employees the freedom to do side projects (alluding to comments above more so the legal case) given the freedom HP gave Woz is the reason Apple exists. Read the article as this summary is very light. Link:

http://www.foundersatwork.com/steve-wozniak.html

 

[nutmac]

Nuvia? What an original name! It doesn't remind me of nVidia at all. He must be working on an original idea that isn't infringing on Apple's IP at all.

 

[AxiomaticRubric]

Williams(') [...] new company develops processors for use in data centers.

Apple [...] claim(s) that his contracts [...] prevented him from engaging in business activities that are directly related to Apple's business.

After sacking the Xserve, when have data centers been directly related to Apple's business? Apple has data centers for iCloud that don't operate on any software the company maintains (mostly Linux-based according to most reports). Is Apple planning to offer Cloud-based services like Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure?

No, they are not.

Apple doesn't have much to stand on with this one.

 

[ipponrg]

sounds like he's complaining that it's terrible that he has to abide by the terms of a non-compete clause in a contract that he willing signed to take the job at Apple.

In California, non-compete clauses are generally void. There is more to this story than just that.

 

[pbush25]

Apple doesn't do business in the area where he wants to go so this is simply Apple being *******s.
Apple doesn't do data centers so this is a joke. I hope he wins

Apple makes processors. This guy's new company makes processors. Doesn't matter what the intended application is if the guy had a non-compete in the "processor" business in his contract.

 

[FlyingDutch]

I love Apple. But they are becoming the evil they once fought against. They use to be the pirates, now they are the pirated.

Nope. Apple is just protecting its IP.

 

[farewelwilliams]

I love Apple. But they are becoming the evil they once fought against. They use to be the pirates, now they are the pirated.

You just root for the small guys. How about rooting for what's actually right vs wrong?

 

[mi7chy]

Nuvia is competing with companies like Broadcom and not with Apple. Apple is just being a bully and throwing their ex employees, suppliers, independent app developers (stealing their ideas and removing their apps), etc. under the bus.

 

[I7guy]

If Williams actually did what Apple is alleging, he is one bad Apple and it will all come out eventually and deserves some of apples wrath.

 

[hagjohn]

Doesn't Apple poach people all the time while they are working for other companies, in the fields they are hired for?

 

[ksec]

I wonder why Williams dislike Apple so much that he left and try to lure people out. May be a crash or fall out with Johny Srouji ?