The defendant labored on the unit conducting R&D for the Imaginative and prescient Professional spatial laptop
Apple CEO Tim Cook dinner and the Imaginative and prescient Professional. | Picture credit-Apple
The Imaginative and prescient Professional combined actuality headset makes use of augmented actuality (AR) and digital actuality (VR). The latter makes use of audio, visible, and different options to immerse the person in a pc created setting. Augmented actuality makes use of laptop generated photographs and superimposes them over a real-life video feed. Data revealed within the lawsuit and in Liu’s LinkedIn profile revealed that when he left Apple, the design engineer took a brand new job with Snap, Inc, the mother or father firm of AR-powered social media app Snapchat.
Snap additionally sells a wearable product referred to as “Spectacles.” The newest variations of those AR glasses are for app designers solely. Utilizing twin Snapdragon processors, these glasses may be run independently with out being tethered to a smartphone or one other machine for processing knowledge. When Liu left Apple, he didn’t point out to the corporate that he had acquired a job supply from Snap two weeks earlier than his departure.
The lawsuit filed by Apple mentioned that this meant “he (Liu) would quickly begin working in a product design position at Snap considerably just like the position he held at Apple.” The lawsuit defined why Apple allowed him to remain at Apple for a two week interval earlier than leaving the corporate. “As a result of Mr. Liu didn’t inform Apple that he was departing to work on one other firm’s product, Mr. Liu was permitted to remain on at Apple for the usual two-week departure interval moderately than instantly shedding entry to Apple’s proprietary info.”
Liu did not inform Apple in regards to the job supply he acquired from Snap
Apple claims that three days earlier than leaving Apple, Liu used his credentials to obtain hundreds of Apple paperwork containing commerce secrets and techniques and add them into his private cloud storage. In keeping with the lawsuit, the information he downloaded needed to do with product design, high quality management, and methods associated to the provision chain.
“The overlap between Apple’s proprietary info that Mr. Liu retained and Snap’s AR merchandise (for which Mr. Liu is a ‘product design engineer’) means that Mr. Liu intends to make use of Apple’s proprietary info at Snap.”
-Apple’s lawsuit
Apple was in a position to study Liu’s company-issued laptop, which he used to obtain firm secrets and techniques and ship a replica to his cloud storage. The lawsuit says that the defendant has violated his confidentiality settlement and seeks unspecified damages. It additionally needs the courtroom to order Liu to return stolen commerce secrets and techniques and bear an examination of his digital units in case there are extra stolen Apple commerce secrets and techniques hidden on them.
The go well with additionally states, “Mr. Liu’s actions had been deliberate. Logs on his Apple-issued work laptop computer present that Mr. Liu individually chosen the folders he copied and, in some instances, renamed and reorganized them after transferring them to his private cloud storage account.” Snap was not named as a defendant or accused of any wrongdoing within the lawsuit. It mentioned it had reviewed the claims in Apple’s lawsuit, and had “no motive to imagine they’re associated to this particular person’s employment or conduct at Snap.”
