Apple has been one of the leading manufacturers of smart devices for many years, and its success has been thanks to the quality of its components and devices, so it's expected that the tech giant would pursue a legal course when they feel that it has been threatened.
Apple Drops the Lawsuit Anyway
Former chip executive from Apple, Gerard Williams III has been accused of creating the company he co-founded in 2019, Nuvia, while still being employed at Apple, along with trying to recruit others to join him in his new company.
After being sued, Williams countered the accusation by claiming that Apple was accessing his text messages. This led to the former employee who worked for the company for almost a decade to go through three years of litigation.
In a surprising turn of events, the tech giant decided to drop the lawsuit and filed for a dismissal, as mentioned by Engadget. There are no indications as to why the company dropped the case after three years, but reports say they did so "with prejudice."
This means that the iPhone manufacturer cannot file another lawsuit with the same subject or claim and that both parties have decided to reach a settlement. The judge who was also meant to overlook the case, Sunil Kulkarni has been recused before the dismissal.
This was due to the lawyers that Apple newly hired to join its legal team, Brian Wilson and Ken Kuwayti. The two worked at Morrison and Foerster, the legal firm where Judge Sunil Kulkarni worked for around 13 years, and also stayed in touch with the two lawyers.
Judge Kulkarni said that he had occasional social interactions with them and that he believes he has recused himself from past cases that involved Wilson and Kuwayti, solely for "prophylactic measure," as mentioned in reports.
Apple decided to keep the two lawyers on its legal team, which is why Judge Kulkarni stated that he was leaning toward recusal. He also mentioned that his stepping off the case would delay the trial that was already set for October 2nd, 2023.
Read Also: Apple Might Release Its Own Modem, Bluetooth and WiFi Chip by 2024
The Lawsuit
The lawsuit was filed back in January 2020 in the Santa Clara County Supreme Court. The main accusation was that the chip designer violated anti-competitive clauses in his contract by founding a company while still being employed at Apple, as mentioned in Gadgets 360.
William is among the people who contributed to Apple's A7 chip, which was the first 64-bit mobile processor. Nuvia, the company that has since been acquired by Qualcomm in 2021, wanted to "reimagine" silicon design for better performance and energy efficiency.
Even though Williams accused Apple of spying on his text messages and requested that it should be excluded from the lawsuit, a judge rejected the request, saying that they were not obtained through eavesdropping for recording confidential communication.
When Apple tried to claim punitive damages against Williams, the judge rejected it as well, saying that the chip designer did not intentionally try to harm the company. All this, however, became irrelevant since the lawsuit has already been dropped.
Related: Apple Faces Second Class Action Suit Over Alleged Systematic Privacy Violations
