Apple sued for poaching engineers with deep expertise in electric car systems

[Victorious Secret]

 

Company claims Apple is developing a large-scale battery division to compete 

 

 

Oh Apple, not the breach of contracts! 

 

It seems that in their desire to go hard on building out their car/battery/whatever empire, they might have stepped on some non-competes that prevented A123 employees from leaving. The interesting part? A123 had government backed funding BUT they are in bankruptcy, as my source quoted below says. 

On one hand, A123 is selling off assets and has employees so crucial that if they leave, entire projects have to be shut down; on the other they are suing Apple for hiring employees to a company that is a tad more stable for their future careers. 

 

A123 Systems is a pioneering industrial lithium-ion battery maker, which was backed by a $249m US government grant. It filed for bankruptcy in 2012 and has been selling off assets. 

 

Lithium-ion is a battery technology that can be used in applications from computers to airplanes, but A123 specializes in big batteries that can be used in big machines, including cars. A123 did not say what specifically the engineers worked on. 

 

It said in its lawsuit that the engineers who left were of such caliber that the projects they had been working on had to be abandoned after their departures. It also accused one of the five defendants, Mujeeb Ijaz, of helping Apple recruit among its ranks.

 

Apple has been poaching engineers with deep expertise in car systems, including from Tesla Inc, and talking with industry experts and automakers with the ultimate aim of learning how to make its own electric car, an auto industry source said last week.

 

Around June 2014, Apple began aggressively poaching A123 engineers tasked with leading some of the company’s most critical projects, the lawsuit said. The engineers jumped ship to pursue similar programs at Apple, in violation of their employment agreements, A123 said in a filing earlier this month in Massachusetts federal court.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/feb/19/apple-lawsuit-poaching-engineers-electric-car

[Swndlr]

i like dat word

poachin

[Guest]

You can sue for that?

[werto165]

apple tsk tsk elon musk. 

[Kyuubixchidori]

all I can think is sueing the indviduals? how can you sue apple

[shujin]

i like dat word

poachin

I did not knew that word www

[jrfox87]

I don't get how Apple can get sued for this.

[Jaybird]

So let me get this straight. A failing company that has filed for chapter 11 is sueing apple because they feel that their employees are restricted from working for apple due to a non compete regulation in the employee contract and they are mad because apple is offering a stable job with good pay? Sounds like they need to sue the employee not apple.

[SpaceCore]

The employee broke the contract, not Apple. this is silly.

[ShadowCaptain]

Thats ridiculous!

 

people can work for whoever they want, for whatever reason for however much money

 

they didnt kidnapp them