In most industries, an employee actively working on their next venture while still on the payroll of their current employer is generally looked down upon by said employer. Still, it happens in most every sector, from pizza to automobiles to everywhere in between. 

In tech this is of course especially common, and an interesting case involving Apple may redefine the current legal landscape in this area. Apple is suing one of its former chip executives, Gerard Williams III, who left last year to form his own start-up, Nuvia, which builds chips for servers. 

According to Reuters, Apple is alleging that “he breached an intellectual property agreement and a duty of loyalty to the company by planning his new startup while on company time at Apple, spending hours on the phone with colleagues who eventually joined the venture.”

California law, generally speaking, has long fallen on the side of being in favor of employee movement, but of course there are limits. The outcome of this case could have implications for virtually every tech firm that does business in the state.