In particular in California where non-competes are illegal and unenforceable (no idea if Massimo had noncompetes, just underlining your point). However the bas

In particular in California where non-competes are illegal and unenforceable (no idea if Massimo had noncompetes, just underlining your point). However the basis of the suit was fraudulent representation: Apple lost on the basis that they were found to be pretending to buy the company or license the tech. Have no idea if this is Apple's typical M.O. though I doubt it solely on the fact that these suits are rarely brought and they would be a juicy target. I saw Google do this to a company I was loosely connected to. Because they were in acquisition discussions I was more closely involved than normal (but not in any inter-party meetings). My interpretation of events was incompetence on Big G's acquisition team rather than actual malice. It was a big deal for the startup but rather small for G and it didn't look like they had sent the A team over to do the deal. I have no idea what really happened with Massimo/Apple beyond a few reports in the press.