Steve Wozniak sued for allegedly stealing business idea
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is dealing with a million-dollar lawsuit for allegedly thieving the thought for a tech university bearing his name.
Connecticut organization professor Ralph Reilly statements in the go well with that he and Wozniak produced a handshake arrangement in 2011 to establish a tech college, Insider reported.
The university would have been dubbed “the Woz Institute of Engineering,” relying on Wozniak’s title and name as a crucial engineer driving Apple’s early days, in accordance to the report.
Though the idea in no way came to fruition, Wozniak released a very similar venture below the title Woz U in 2017 in partnership with laptop coding boot camp organization Coder Camps.
Just after the launch of Woz U, Reilly emailed Wozniak inquiring to sign up for the company, in accordance to court filings reviewed by Insider.
Woz U did not immediately return The Post’s request for comment.
“It’s precisely what I envisioned for Woz Institute of Know-how when I initial approached you with the idea,” Reilly reportedly wrote in an e-mail.
“You are suitable on the mark,” Wozniak responded, according to the report. “You had the right idea… I doubt it would have happened with no your first idea!”
But when Reilly adopted up, asking for some possession in the challenge, Wozniak reportedly stopped responding.
Reilly is now suing Wozniak for alleged intellectual property theft and copyright infringement. He’s reportedly searching for at least $1 million in reduction and damages.
Reilly did not right away return The Post’s ask for for remark.
Insider documented that Wozniak’s staff will argue that he and Reilly by no means achieved a agency deal on the college, and that Wozniak is not generally involved in most organization dealings, leaving issues like agreement negotiations to his supervisor and others on his team.
The situation is established to go to trial on June 7 in Arizona, and Wozniak has been called to the stand to testify, Insider noted.