Axiom Microdevices Inc. publicly rejected charges that one of its employees had stolen trade secrets from Silicon Laboratories Inc. (Austin, TX), the company in which the Axiom employee had once worked. Last month, Silicon Laboratories said it had filed an intellectual property lawsuit against Axiom and Ali Niknejad, a member of Axiom's technical advisory board who previously worked on Silicon Laboratories' CMOS RF power amplifier.
The lawsuit alleges that Niknejad breached his ethical, contractual and fiduciary obligations to Silicon Laboratories by disclosing trade secrets and confidential information to Axiom. Axiom denied Silicon Laboratories' charges, noting its breakthrough technology was conceived by its founders and inventors at the California Institute of Technology. Axiom also demanded "strict proof" of facts that support the Silicon Laboratories' allegations. The company also said Niknejad, a faculty member at UC Berkley, filed a similar statement.
