{"id":336993,"date":"2017-03-29T02:09:38","date_gmt":"2017-03-28T18:09:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/?p=1469864"},"modified":"2017-03-29T02:09:38","modified_gmt":"2017-03-28T18:09:38","slug":"judge-criticizes-ubers-secrecy-in-lawsuit-with-waymo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/judge-criticizes-ubers-secrecy-in-lawsuit-with-waymo\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge criticizes Uber\u2019s secrecy in lawsuit with Waymo"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Google\u2019s side of the story in its patent and trade secret case against Uber is pretty damning \u2014 Google alleges that a former employee of\u00a0its self-driving car unit, Anthony Levandowski, stole thousands of sensitive documents on his way out the door to lead Uber\u2019s self-driving efforts. But, as an attorney for Uber told reporters last week<\/a>, Uber would very much like all of this to be resolved in arbitration between Google\u2019s Waymo\u00a0and Levandowski rather than in open court.<\/p>\n

That desire for secrecy is on full display in a new, heavily redacted motion Uber filed in the case today, asking for the dispute to be forced into arbitration based on the employment contract Levandowski signed with Google. Arbitration would have several benefits for Uber \u2014 it would distance the company from the allegations of theft leveraged against Levandowski, and it would keep the proceedings out of the public eye.<\/p>\n

\u201cWaymo especially should not be allowed to avoid arbitration where it has alleged pervasive collusion between Levandowski and Defendants, and where its claims are connected with, and founded on, Levandowski\u2019s alleged misconduct while he was a Waymo employee \u2014 conduct that his employment contracts governed,\u201d Uber argued. \u201cWaymo\u2019s purpose for proceeding in this curious manner seems clear: through artful pleading, it hopes to avoid arbitrating the misappropriation and UCL [unfair competition law] claims at all costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Waymo claims that, regardless of Levandowski\u2019s employment contract, Uber is still infringing on its patents and so the case needs to move forward.<\/p>\n

Judge William Alsup, who is presiding over the case, slammed Uber\u2019s heavy redactions and told both companies to sort out what actually needs to be kept secret from Levandowski\u2019s employment contract.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOur federal courts belong to the public, and the public and the press have a legitimate interest in looking over our shoulders to see the work in progress in our courts. The essence of our work concerns evaluating competing arguments. Parties should not hide those arguments under seal out of a desire to shroud business dealings in secrecy,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

The two companies are due back in court on May 3 to debate a preliminary injunction that would prevent Uber from using Waymo technology while the lawsuit is underway. Judge Alsup has asked Uber and Waymo to come up with code names for Waymo\u2019s trade secrets so that they can be referenced during the public hearing.<\/p>\n

Featured Image: Sabine Scheckel\/DigitalVision\/Getty Images<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\" Google’s side of the story in its patent and trade secret case against Uber is pretty damning — Google alleges that a former employee of its self-driving car unit stole thousands of sensitive documents on his way out the door to lead Uber’s self-driving efforts. But Uber would very much like all of this to be resolved in arbitration rather than in open court. Read More<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"\/ <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5817,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[59,66,26],"class_list":["post-336993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-media","tag-techcrunch","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5817"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336993\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}