Feb. 19, 2015—Electric-car battery maker A123 Systems has filed suit against Apple for allegedly poaching top engineers to build a large-scale battery division for the California-based tech company, according to a report from Auto News.
Apple has allegedly been recruiting engineers who specialize in car systems across the industry, with hopes of hiring them for its own electric car project, according to the filing.
The engineers Apple allegedly recruited from A123 worked on some of the company’s largest car battery projects, and working for what seems to now be a competitor in the market violates their employment agreements with A123, according to the filing.
The suit names five former A123 employees who now work for Apple, in addition to five other battery companies who have suffered the same problems from Apple, including LG Chem Ltd., Samsung SDI Co., Panasonic Corp., Toshiba Corp., and Johnson Controls.
