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`Case 5:22-cv-02637 Document 1 Filed 04/29/22 Page 1 of 21
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`BRYAN WILSON (CA SBN 138842)
`BWilson@mofo.com
`KENNETH A. KUWAYTI (CA SBN 145384)
`KKuwayti@mofo.com
`MORRISON & FOERSTER LLP
`755 Page Mill Road
`Palo Alto, California 94304-1018
`Telephone: 650.813.5600
`Facsimile: 650.494.0792
`
`ARTURO J. GONZALEZ (CA SBN 121490)
`AGonzalez@mofo.com
`DIEK O. VAN NORT (CA SBN 273823)
`DVanNort@mofo.com
`MORRISON & FOERSTER LLP
`425 Market Street
`San Francisco, California 94105-2482
`Telephone: 415.268.7000
`Facsimile: 415.268.7522
`
`MARY PRENDERGAST (CA SBN 272737)
`MPrendergast@mofo.com
`MORRISON & FOERSTER LLP
`2100 L Street, NW, Suite 900
`Washington, District of Columbia 20037
`Telephone: 202.887.1500
`Facsimile: 202.887.0763
`
`Attorneys for Plaintiff,
`APPLE INC.
`
`
`UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
`NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA
`SAN JOSE DIVISION
`
`APPLE INC., a California corporation,
`Plaintiff,
`
`v.
`
`RIVOS, INC., a Delaware corporation; WEN
`SHIH-CHIEH a/k/a RICKY WEN, and
`BHASI KAITHAMANA,
`Defendants.
`
`Case No. 5:22-cv-2637
`COMPLAINT
`
`(1) Breach of Contract
`
`(2) Violation of the Defend Trade Secrets
`Act (18 U.S.C. § 1836 et seq.)
`
`DEMAND FOR JURY TRIAL
`
`
`COMPLAINT
`CASE NO. 5:22-CV-2637
`
`
`
`
`

`

`Case 5:22-cv-02637 Document 1 Filed 04/29/22 Page 2 of 21
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`Plaintiff Apple Inc. (“Apple”) brings this Complaint against Defendant Rivos, Inc.
`(“Rivos”) and current Rivos employees Wen Shih-Chieh a/k/a Ricky Wen and Bhasi Kaithamana
`(together, the “Individual Defendants”) (collectively, “Defendants”) and alleges as follows:
`
`INTRODUCTION
`1.
`Apple brings this action to prevent Rivos and its employees from exploiting
`Apple’s most valuable trade secrets to compete with Apple unlawfully and unfairly.
`2.
`Apple’s cutting-edge, advanced system-on-chip (“SoC”) designs, including its M1
`laptop SoC and A15 mobile phone SoC, have revolutionized the personal and mobile computing
`worlds. Apple has devoted billions of dollars and more than a decade of effort to develop the
`proprietary technologies and expertise necessary to engineer these revolutionary SoC designs and
`become a leader in the field of semiconductor design.
`3.
`“Stealth mode” startup Rivos, which was founded to design and market its own
`competing SoCs, has filled out its ranks with dozens of former Apple engineers. Starting in June
`2021, Rivos began a coordinated campaign to target Apple employees with access to Apple
`proprietary and trade secret information about Apple’s SoC designs. Apple promptly sent Rivos a
`letter informing Rivos of the confidentiality obligations of Apple’s former employees, but Rivos
`never responded.
`4.
`After accepting their offers from Rivos, some of these employees took gigabytes
`of sensitive SoC specifications and design files during their last days of employment with Apple.
`Some used multiple USB storage drives to offload material to personal devices, accessed Apple’s
`most proprietary specifications stored within collaboration applications, and used AirDrop to
`transfer files to personal devices. Others saved voluminous presentations on existing and
`unreleased Apple SoCs—marked Apple Proprietary and Confidential—to their personal cloud
`storage drives. One even made a full Time Machine backup of his entire Apple device onto a
`personal external drive. Apple has reason to believe that Rivos instructed at least some of these
`individuals to download and install apps for encrypted communications before conducting further
`conversations. And several of the employees deleted information or wiped their Apple devices
`entirely to try to cover their tracks, later falsely representing to Apple that they had not done so.
`
`COMPLAINT
`CASE NO. 5:22-CV-2637
`
`
`1
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`5.
`Apple welcomes and values open competition and the innovation that can result.
`But that competition cannot be built on the back of trade secret theft. The sheer volume of
`information taken, the highly sensitive nature of that information, and the fact that these
`employees are now performing the same duties for a competitor with ongoing access to some of
`Apple’s most valuable trade secrets, leave Apple with few alternatives. If Apple does not act to
`protect its most sensitive secrets now, Apple could lose trade secret status over them entirely.
`That outcome is untenable given Apple’s extensive investments of time and resources into its
`SoC programs. The full extent of the use and disclosure of Apple’s trade secret information at
`Rivos also is uniquely within the possession of the Individual Defendants and Rivos, particularly
`since Defendants have taken actions to conceal evidence regarding their misconduct. Apple
`therefore has no choice but to bring this action to recover its trade secrets, to protect them from
`further disclosure, and to uncover the full extent of their use to try to mitigate the harm that has
`and will occur.
`
`JURISDICTION, VENUE, AND PARTIES
`6.
`This Court has original jurisdiction of the asserted federal law claims under the
`Defend Trade Secrets Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1836(c), and under federal question jurisdiction pursuant
`to 28 U.S.C. § 1331. The Court has supplemental jurisdiction over the state law claim pursuant to
`28 U.S.C. § 1357 because it is part of the same case or controversy.
`7.
`Venue is proper pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1391(b) and (c), because Apple resides
`in this District and Individual Defendants, all former Apple employees, have signed an
`Intellectual Property Agreement and “consent[ed] to personal jurisdiction of and venue in the
`state and federal courts within Santa Clara County, California” and agreed that any “judicial
`action between the parties relating to this Agreement will take place in Santa Clary County,
`California.”1 Individual Defendant Ricky Wen also committed the wrongful acts within this
`District.
`
`
`1 Ex. A, Apple Intellectual Property Agreement (executed by Ricky Wen) (“Wen IPA”)
`§ 6.0(b); Ex. B, Apple Intellectual Property Agreement (executed by Bhasi Kaithamana)
`(“Kaithamana IPA”) § 6.0(b).
`
`COMPLAINT
`CASE NO. 5:22-CV-2637
`
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`2
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`8.
`Apple is and at all times mentioned herein has been a California corporation
`having its principal place of business at One Apple Park Way, Cupertino, California 95014.
`9.
`Upon information and belief, Defendant Rivos is and at all times mentioned herein
`has been a Delaware corporation having its principal place of business at 2811 Mission College
`Blvd, 7th Floor, Santa Clara, CA, 95054-1884. Rivos currently employs each of the Individual
`Defendants, as well as numerous other former employees of Apple, many of whom were formerly
`employed by Apple in this District. At least some of these former employees perform their work
`for Rivos within this District. Rivos’s intended business will derive substantial revenue from
`sales within this District.
`10.
`Upon information and belief, Defendant Bhasi Kaithamana resides in Austin,
`Texas. He is a “CPU Implementation Lead” at Rivos. He was a Senior Engineering Manager
`(CPU Design) employed by Apple and working at Apple’s facilities in Austin, Texas until
`August 16, 2021, in coordination with other Apple employees in Apple’s facilities in Cupertino,
`California, including when the facts underlying this Complaint occurred. Like the other
`Individual Defendants, Mr. Kaithamana signed the Intellectual Property Agreement agreeing to
`jurisdiction in California and venue in Santa Clara County.
`11.
`Upon information and belief, Defendant Ricky Wen resides in San Jose,
`California. He is currently employed as a “Principal Member of Technical Staff” with a focus
`generally on “Hardware Engineering” at Rivos. He was a CPU design engineer employed by
`Apple and worked at Apple’s facilities in Cupertino, California until August 6, 2021, including
`when the events described in this Complaint occurred.
`
`BACKGROUND
`12.
`Founded in 1976, Apple is a world-renowned technology company and global
`leader in consumer electronics, mobile communications, and computing. It designs,
`manufactures, and markets smartphones, personal computers, tablets, wearables and accessories,
`and sells a variety of related services. Apple’s success and ability to compete successfully
`depend heavily upon its ability to ensure a continual and timely flow of competitive products,
`services, and technologies to the marketplace. Apple continues to develop new technologies to
`
`COMPLAINT
`CASE NO. 5:22-CV-2637
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`enhance existing products and services, and to expand the range of its offerings through, among
`other avenues, its significant investments in research and development.
`13.
`One key aspect of Apple’s newest cutting-edge products is its use of highly
`advanced SoCs, which Apple custom designs. SoCs are integrated circuits that contain, in a
`single chip, multiple processing components, such as one or more central processing units
`(“CPUs”), graphics processing units (“GPUs”), cache memories, and specialized processors.
`Apple custom designs its own processing components and integrates them together in SoC
`designs that reduce the area footprint of the chips and achieve tighter component integration
`compared to traditional computer systems. Apple’s SoCs allow for faster, more efficient, and
`more powerful computing. Apple’s unique designs and architecture are critical to its competitive
`edge in the marketplace. Apple’s first ARM-based SoCs for laptop and desktop computers, the
`M1 chip family, was released in November 2020 to great success. The M1 family has now
`expanded to include the M1 Pro, M1 Max, and M1 Ultra chips.
`14.
`The M1 chip is the first personal computer chip built using cutting-edge
`5-nanometer process technology. It features a unified memory architecture for dramatically
`improved performance and efficiency. At the time it was released, it featured among the world’s
`fastest CPU cores in low-power silicon, best CPU performance per watt, and fastest integrated
`graphics in a personal computer, while boasting breakthrough machine learning performance.
`The M1 Pro, Max, and Ultra chips have only extended Apple’s lead in performance, custom
`technologies, and power efficiency.
`
`
`SoC Design
`15.
`SoC design is complex and challenging, and requires considerable expertise and
`experience. Instruction Set Architectures (“ISAs”) define processor instructions that perform
`various processing functions (e.g., accessing memory, comparing data, arithmetic). ISAs are
`implemented through physical processor components that execute an ISA’s various instructions.
`Designing SoC chips based on an ISA involves developing abstract models for these physical
`components that act as the interface between the SoC and the software. Chip designers use these
`abstract models to design the physical structure of SoCs.
`
`COMPLAINT
`CASE NO. 5:22-CV-2637
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`16.
`Some modern ISAs utilize the popular reduced instruction set computer (“RISC”)
`architecture design. RISC-based ISAs focus on creating a relatively small set of simple,
`commonly used instructions for carrying out processor functions to run typical programs. These
`simple instructions require less physical hardware to execute and can be combined to accomplish
`more complex functions.
`17.
`Arm Ltd. develops leading RISC-based architectures for SoCs. Arm Ltd.’s
`proprietary “Advanced RISC Machine,” or “ARM,” architectures are licensed to its customers,
`which include Apple, and are used in some of the most advanced SoCs in the world, such as
`Apple’s M1 SoC.
`18.
`The RISC-V ISA is an ISA that can be freely used to develop RISC-based SoCs.
`Although the ARM and RISC-V architectures are not the same, they share many common
`features, and corresponding SoC designs can share many common elements. As a result, certain
`foundational elements and microarchitectural designs of ARM-based SoCs are useful in designing
`RISC-V-based SoCs. Thus Rivos, which develops RISC-V SoCs, can take advantage of
`ARM-based SoC designs to shorten its development timelines.
`
`
`Apple’s Innovative SoC Designs
`19.
`Apple has developed a number of highly successful, groundbreaking ARM-based
`SoCs. Apple’s SoC research, development, and manufacturing are led by teams of Apple
`engineers. Apple entrusts these engineers with developing, among other things, its ARM
`technology, chip designs, and other elements of Apple’s SoC business. Apple has dedicated
`billions of dollars to this critical work.
`20.
`Apple’s SoC engineers work on some of Apple’s most sensitive and critical
`projects. Since 2010, Apple has designed and developed more than a dozen high-performance
`SoCs for use in Apple’s flagship iPad and iPhone projects. Recent work includes the A15 SoC at
`the heart of Apple’s latest iPhones and the M1 family of SoCs that power Apple’s desktops,
`laptops, and high-performance iPads.
`21.
`As is necessary for their cutting-edge work, select Apple engineers have access to
`some of Apple’s most closely guarded proprietary and trade secret information. These trade
`
`COMPLAINT
`CASE NO. 5:22-CV-2637
`
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`Case 5:22-cv-02637 Document 1 Filed 04/29/22 Page 7 of 21
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`secrets include SoC designs, component designs, customized ISA instructions, and other
`Apple-developed know-how gained from years of developing advanced SoCs.
`
`
`Apple Diligently Protects Its Trade Secret Chip Designs
`22.
`Apple diligently protects its proprietary and trade secret designs and investments
`in research and development. As a condition of employment, Apple employees, including the
`Individual Defendants, are required to sign a confidentiality agreement that legally obligates them
`to protect and not disclose to third parties confidential information acquired during their
`employment. This obligation continues even after the employee leaves Apple.
`23.
`One of the most critical agreements for protecting Apple’s proprietary and trade
`secret information is the Intellectual Property Agreement (“IPA”). Under the IPA, which Apple
`employees, including the Individual Defendants, must execute at the start of their employment,
`employees attest that:
`
`You understand that your employment by Apple requires you to
`keep all Proprietary Information in confidence and trust for the
`tenure of your employment and thereafter, and that you will not use
`or disclose Proprietary Information without the written consent of
`Apple, except as necessary to perform your duties as an employee
`of Apple. Upon termination of your employment with Apple, you
`will promptly deliver to Apple all documents and materials of any
`kind pertaining to your work at Apple, and you agree that you will
`not take with you any documents, materials, or copies thereof,
`whether on paper, magnetic or optical media, or any other medium,
`containing any Proprietary Information.
`24.
`Apple employees, including the Individual Defendants, also agree that Apple
`would be entitled to injunctive relief for any violations of the IPA. In particular, the IPA
`provides:
`
`A breach of the provisions of sections 1 or 2 of this Agreement
`would cause irreparable harm and significant injury to Apple, the
`quantification of which is difficult to ascertain. Because such harm
`and injury could not be compensable by damages alone, you agree
`that Apple will have the right to enforce sections 1 and 2 of this
`Agreement by injunction, specific performance or other equitable
`relief without prejudice to any other rights and remedies available
`to Apple in the event of a breach of this Agreement.
`25.
`Each of the Individual Defendants executed a copy of the IPA upon commencing
`employment with Apple.
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`COMPLAINT
`CASE NO. 5:22-CV-2637
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`26.
`Apple also has certain Hardware Technologies (“HWT”) employees, who handle
`Apple’s highly-sensitive, proprietary, and trade secret information relating to hardware design,
`function, and operation, such as for Apple’s SoCs. During employee exit interviews for these
`HWT Apple employees, including the Individual Defendants, Apple provides a “Checklist for
`HWT Departing Employees” to “help employees leaving Apple understand their responsibility to
`preserve confidentiality of intellectual property.” Each of the Individual Defendants
`acknowledged that he “signed an Intellectual Property Agreement (IPA) that does not expire”
`upon leaving Apple.
`27.
`By signing the Checklist for HWT Departing Employees, each departing HWT
`employee, including the Individual Defendants, acknowledges that the IPA says he or she “will
`not use or share Apple confidential information while you are an Apple employee and after you
`leave Apple. Everything you worked on at Apple stays here.” Each departing employee,
`including the Individual Defendants, acknowledges that “[a]ll employees must return all Apple
`confidential information prior to leaving Apple[.]” Each employee must also “[c]onfirm that you
`have done a diligent search of spaces you could have stored Apple property,” including
`“[p]ersonal computer(s) or laptop(s),” “[f]lash drive(s),” “[p]ersonal email,” and “[e]xternal hard
`drive(s).” Each departing employee, including the Individual Defendants, additionally must
`confirm that they had “returned or destroyed all Apple confidential information prior to leaving
`Apple” and that they “returned all Apple Owned Devices (AOU) and [had] not wiped any AOU.”
`28.
`Each Individual Defendant executed a copy of the Checklist for HWT Departing
`Employees during or shortly after their exit interview following resignation from Apple.
`29.
`Apple takes additional measures to maintain the confidentiality of its proprietary
`information, including the trade secrets at issue in this lawsuit. With regard to terminated HWT
`employees, for example, Apple protects its proprietary information by requiring the return of
`Apple laptops, mobile devices, and other equipment and the removal of Apple and third-party
`files, documents, and software from the terminated employees’ possession.
`30.
`Apple also provides HWT employees with rules and guidelines on how to preserve
`the confidentiality of Apple’s proprietary information. These materials specifically forbid
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`COMPLAINT
`CASE NO. 5:22-CV-2637
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`Case 5:22-cv-02637 Document 1 Filed 04/29/22 Page 9 of 21
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`distribution of Apple’s confidential information to others except on a need-to-know basis.
`31.
`Apple further protects its most valuable SoC designs and specifications by limiting
`access to its Confluence and Perforce databases to only those projects that an employee is
`currently working on and authorized to view. Confluence and Perforce are collaborative
`information management tools that allow Apple SoC engineers and designers to share and store
`their work on Apple’s trade secret SoC designs. Engineers require login credentials to access
`these tools, and the level of access is limited to what a particular engineer’s job responsibilities
`require.
`
`
`
`Former Apple Employees Leaving for Rivos Retained Apple Confidential and
`Proprietary Trade Secrets After Accepting Offers From Rivos
`32.
`Rivos was founded in or around May 2021 to design a full stack computing
`solution based on custom-designed reduced instruction set computer-based SoCs that will
`compete with Apple’s ARM SoCs.
`33.
`Since June 2021, over 40 former Apple employees have joined Rivos. Rivos
`continues to target Apple engineers, with more departures occurring this month. A majority of
`these former Apple employees were design engineers, developing Apple’s cutting-edge
`proprietary and trade secret SoC designs. These designs represent the culmination of substantial
`research and development costs and could be used to significantly accelerate development of a
`custom reduced instruction set computer-based SoC.
`34.
`Rivos targeted and solicited Apple employees who were highly experienced
`engineers with both substantial expertise with SoC design and significant and extensive access to
`trade secrets at the core of Apple’s SoC designs. Apple has reason to believe that Rivos
`instructed at least some Apple employees to download and install apps for encrypted
`communications (e.g., the Signal app) before communicating with them further.
`35.
`As noted above, many of the employees who left Apple to join Rivos were trusted
`by Apple with its most sensitive trade secret SoC designs and technology. Many have taken
`Apple’s proprietary and trade secret information with them.
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`COMPLAINT
`CASE NO. 5:22-CV-2637
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`36.
`The certifications made by the Individual Defendants during their exit interviews
`that they had returned or deleted Apple’s proprietary and trade secret information were false.
`Apple’s forensic analysis of the Individual Defendants’ computing devices has revealed that they
`took and retained Apple’s proprietary and trade secret information when they departed Apple.
`This information is protected by the IPA and was falsely confirmed to have been returned or
`deleted when the Individual Defendants executed their Checklist for HWT Departing Employees.
`37.
`Following interviews with Rivos and accepting offers for employment but before
`leaving Apple, each Individual Defendant accessed and downloaded Apple’s proprietary and
`trade secret information regarding the design and operation of Apple’s most advanced SoCs.
`These actions are in direct violation of the IPAs each Individual Defendant executed as a
`condition of their employment with Apple. The Individual Defendants have each retained Apple
`proprietary and trade secret information, giving Apple reason to believe that it is being used by
`Rivos to improperly advance Rivos’s own SoC design program.
`
`Bhasi Kaithamana
`
`38.
`Apple employed Individual Defendant Bhasi Kaithamana for nearly 8 years, from
`September 2013 until August 2021. During his tenure with Apple, Mr. Kaithamana was a CPU
`implementation engineer, responsible for managing CPU design for Apple’s SoCs. Mr.
`Kaithamana was responsible for, among other things, designing and developing proprietary and
`trade secret physical structures for carrying out critical functions in Apple’s ARM-based SoCs.
`39.
`As a condition of his employment, Mr. Kaithamana executed an Apple IPA on
`August 26, 2013, agreeing, among other things, to “keep all [Apple] Proprietary Information in
`confidence and trust for the tenure of your employment and thereafter, and that you will not use
`or disclose Proprietary Information without the written consent of Apple[.]” He further agreed
`that “[u]pon termination of your employment with Apple, you will promptly deliver to Apple all
`documents and materials of any kind pertaining to your work at Apple, and you agree that you
`will not take with you any documents, materials, or copies thereof . . . containing any Proprietary
`Information.”
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`COMPLAINT
`CASE NO. 5:22-CV-2637
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`40.
`According to his LinkedIn profile, Mr. Kaithamana is now employed by Rivos.
`His position with Rivos is nearly identical to his previous position at Apple, CPU Implementation
`Lead.
`
`41. Mr. Kaithamana decided to accept Rivos’s offer of employment sometime between
`July 20, 2021 and August 9, 2021. On or about August 9, 2021, Mr. Kaithamana asked for
`August 10 as a vacation day.
`42.
`During his day off, Mr. Kaithamana created a new folder on his Apple-issued
`computer and began copying over Apple documents containing proprietary and trade secret
`information. He worked to continue amassing a collection of Apple’s proprietary and trade secret
`SoC files until the day before he left Apple on August 16, 2021. Many of the files Mr.
`Kaithamana copied related to Apple’s proprietary and trade secret SoC designs, including those
`for unreleased projects.
`43.
`On August 13, 2021, after Mr. Kaithamana was accessing Apple’s sensitive,
`proprietary information, Mr. Kaithamana resigned from his position at Apple.
`44.
`On Saturday, August 14, 2021, Mr. Kaithamana renamed his new folder
`“APPLE_WORK_DOCS” and continued adding Apple documents to it through the weekend.
`Mr. Kaithamana also connected a USB drive seven times between Saturday evening, August 14,
`2021, and Sunday afternoon, August 15, 2021. In the same time period, he opened untitled Excel,
`Keynote, and Numbers documents on the USB drive. Some of these document file names
`correspond to documents on Mr. Kaithamana’s computer that contain Apple confidential
`information, at least some of which were marked Apple Proprietary & Confidential. He then
`proceeded to view file listings for folders containing Apple files with proprietary and trade secret
`information. While viewing these file listings, Mr. Kaithamana repeatedly opened documents,
`but then would clear the list of recently opened documents to conceal the documents he was
`accessing.
`45.
`By Monday, August 16, 2021, Mr. Kaithamana’s last day at Apple, his
`APPLE_WORK_DOCS folder contained thousands of Apple documents. Mr. Kaithamana
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`COMPLAINT
`CASE NO. 5:22-CV-2637
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`Case 5:22-cv-02637 Document 1 Filed 04/29/22 Page 12 of 21
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`copied files to his USB drive over the weekend. His last recorded moving and copying of files
`before turning in his computer to Apple was to that same USB drive.
`46.
`On August 16, 2021, Mr. Kaithamana conducted his exit interview. On
`August 18, 2021, he executed a Checklist for HWT Departing Employees, acknowledging that he
`was subject to the IPA and that he had returned or deleted all Apple proprietary and trade secret
`information in his possession and had not wiped his Apple-issued devices. Mr. Kaithamana
`nevertheless had attempted to hide his activity, including by clearing his browsing history, recent
`applications access list, recent search lists, and many emails.
`47.
`Despite Mr. Kaithamana’s representations at his exit interview and when he
`executed his Checklist for HWT Departing Employees, he downloaded and transferred files
`containing information about Apple’s proprietary and trade secret SoC designs to an external
`USB storage drive.
`
`Ricky Wen
`
`48.
`Apple employed Individual Defendant Ricky Wen for nearly 14 years, from
`April 2008 until August 2021. During his tenure with Apple, Mr. Wen was a CPU design
`engineer, with responsibilities for developing the architecture of Apple’s SoCs. Mr. Wen was
`responsible for, among other things, designing and developing proprietary and trade secret
`architectures for carrying out critical functions in Apple’s ARM-based SoCs.
`49.
`As a condition of his employment, Mr. Wen executed an Apple IPA on April 22,
`2008, agreeing, among other things, to “keep all [Apple] Proprietary Information in confidence
`and trust for the tenure of your employment and thereafter, and that you will not use or disclose
`Proprietary Information without the written consent of Apple[.]” He further agreed that “[u]pon
`termination of your employment with Apple, you will promptly deliver to Apple all documents
`and materials of any kind pertaining to your work at Apple, and you agree that you will not take
`with you any documents, materials, or copies thereof . . . containing any Proprietary
`Information.”
`50. Mr. Wen’s position at Rivos is “Principal Member of Technical Staff” with a focus
`generally on “Hardware Engineering,” which suggests he is performing a similar job function as
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`COMPLAINT
`CASE NO. 5:22-CV-2637
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`Case 5:22-cv-02637 Document 1 Filed 04/29/22 Page 13 of 21
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`he did at Apple (particularly in view of Rivos’s goal of designing a SoC with custom RISC-V
`CPU cores).
`51. Mr. Wen was approached by Rivos about leaving Apple to join Rivos in or about
`June or July 2021. On or about July 23, 2021, Mr. Wen accepted Rivos’s offer of employment.
`52.
`Between July 26, 2021 and July 29, 2021, Mr. Wen transferred approximately 390
`gigabytes from his Apple-issued computer to a personal external hard drive. Among the data
`transferred are confidential Apple documents describing Apple trade secrets, including aspects of
`the microarchitecture for Apple’s past, current, and unreleased SoCs. As of his termination, his
`Apple-issued computer included over 400 gigabytes of Apple confidential information. It also
`stored approximately 200 gigabytes of photos and movies that Apple presumes are personal in
`nature but could account for only a fraction of the data transferred.
`53.
`On or about August 2, 2021, Mr. Wen tendered his resignation to Apple. On or
`about August 5, 2021, Mr. Wen conducted his exit interview and, among other things, executed a
`Checklist for HWT Departing Employees, acknowledging that he was subject to the IPA and that
`he had returned or deleted all Apple proprietary and trade secret information in his possession.
`Mr. Wen’s Apple employment was terminated on August 6, 2021.
`54.
`On the day that he executed his Checklist for HWT Departing Employees, he
`deleted at least one account from his Apple-issued computers. Mr. Wen also deleted his internet
`browsing, iMessage, and iChat histories on his Apple-issued computers and numerous folders and
`files in online and cloud storage drives immediately prior to his termination from Apple.
`55. Mr. Wen accessed still more highly confidential Apple information as late as on or
`about August 5, 2021, the day before he left Apple. Just before an external hard drive was
`connected, Mr. Wen accessed numerous Apple proprietary and trade secret SoC designs,
`including files related to Apple’s unreleased SoC designs, from his Apple-issued computer.
`56. Mr. Wen also transferred gigabytes of files to his personal Google Drive, in
`violation of Apple’s policies, including architectural diagrams depicting Apple trade secret SoC
`designs and folders and nearly 400 files associated with Apple SoC development projects. Apple
`policies prohibit the use of Google Drives for storing, among other things, Apple proprietary and
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`COMPLAINT
`CASE NO. 5:22-CV-2637
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`Case 5:22-cv-02637 Document 1 Filed 04/29/22 Page 14 of 21
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`trade secret information because that information can be accessed from any computer over the
`internet without Apple’s knowledge.
`57.
`As of his termination on August 6, 2021, Mr. Wen retained on his Google Drive a
`diagram showing the architecture of an aspect of an Apple trade secret SoC design. Similarly,
`although Mr. Wen moved thousands of Apple files from personal folders of his iCloud Drive to a
`work folder, investigation of his Apple-owned devices reveals that he retained files relating to
`Apple trade secret SoC designs on his iCloud Driv