Just as rumors ramped up earlier this year that Apple has been developing its own electric vehicle under Project Titan, battery maker A123 Systems filed a lawsuit against Apple for poaching five of its engineers. The two companies appear to now be finalizing a settlement over the dispute, The Boston Globe reports, helping Apple avoid the case going to court.
The lawsuit cited unfair competition and non-compete contract violations after evidence revealed the employees were recruited to leave the battery firm. Apple previously requested an extension to respond to the lawsuit, however, suggesting a settlement was on the table…
A123 System’s charges against Apple especially drew attention over the former firm’s claim that the latter company poached the engineers to work on a “large scale battery division” that competed with their own business which includes powering vehicles.
We previously profiled the team of scientists and engineers working on the electric vehicle project within Apple including the roles of the A123 Systems hires. The team also includes a number of employees poached from Tesla in a wide range of roles, as we reported.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently shared that he hopes Apple enters the automobile market, adding that Tesla has poached some five times as many employees from Apple than it has from them.
You can view the latest filing over the A123 Systems dispute, requesting a further extension ahead of the expected settlement here, and read up on the Apple Car saga here.
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Just Apple being Apple.