Electric car battery maker A123 Systems has reportedly filed a suit against Apple for poaching at least five of its employees to start a large scale battery division of its own.
Tthe lawsuit, filed in Massachusetts state court this month, accuses Cupertino of waging an aggressive campaign to poach employees from A123 to set up a battery division in June last year.
‘Apple is currently developing a large-scale battery division to compete in the very same field as A123,’ the lawsuit read.
“Apple willfully, maliciously and improperly raided the Venture Technology division of A123,” states the complaint.
“A123 suffered a severe economic impact as a result of Apple’s raiding.”
In the lawsuit, the company has named Apple and five of its engineers. It also accused one of the five defendants, Mujeeb Ijaz, of helping the Cupertino recruit among its ranks.
As per the report, A123 Systems has alleged that the iPhone maker also targeted employees with experience in the battery business at LG Electronics, Samsung Electronics, Panasonic, Toshiba, automotive equipment manufacturer Johnson Controls and silicon-graphene battery specialist SiNode.
The suit comes as Apple is all set to challenge Tesla, General Motors Co. and other auto makers in developing an electric vehicle.
