{"id":340743,"date":"2017-05-12T10:27:16","date_gmt":"2017-05-12T02:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/?p=1488902"},"modified":"2017-05-12T10:27:16","modified_gmt":"2017-05-12T02:27:16","slug":"waymos-lawsuit-against-uber-is-going-to-trial-judge-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/waymos-lawsuit-against-uber-is-going-to-trial-judge-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"Waymo\u2019s lawsuit against Uber is going to trial, judge rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Waymo\u2019s lawsuit against Uber<\/a>, its competitor in the automated vehicle business, is going to trial. Judge William Alsup ruled that Uber could not force the lawsuit over theft of trade secrets<\/a> into private arbitration.<\/p>\n

Instead, the trial will play out publicly, with evidence being presented mostly in the open. This is not the scenario that Uber wanted<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Waymo, the self-driving car subsidiary of Google\u2019s parent company Alphabet, has accused Anthony Levandowski, one of its former engineers, of stealing thousands of confidential documents from Waymo before founding his own self-driving truck startup and eventually going to lead Uber\u2019s self-driving team.<\/p>\n

Uber argued unsuccessfully that Waymo\u2019s claims belonged in an arbitration proceeding because of a clause in Levandowski\u2019s employment contract that said disputes between Waymo and Levandowski should be settled in arbitration.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefendants have repeatedly accused Waymo of using \u2018artful\u2019 or \u2018tactical\u2019 pleading to evade its arbitration obligations by omitting Levandowski as a defendant,\u201d Judge Alsup wrote in the decision. \u201cThese accusations are unwarranted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Waymo has pursued a separate arbitration against Levandowski and his co-founder Lior Ron<\/a> over employee poaching. The company claims Levandowski and Ron, also a former Googler, used confidential salary information to poach Google employees to their self-driving truck startup, Otto. Uber acquired Otto in August 2016 in a deal worth roughly $680 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWaymo has honored its obligation to arbitrate against Levandowski by arbitrating its claims (concerning employee poaching) against Levandowski. Its decision to bring separate claims against defendants in court was not only reasonable but also the only course available, since Waymo had no arbitration agreement with defendants. Even though he is not a defendant here, moreover, Levandowski\u2019s assertion of his Fifth Amendment privilege has obstructed and continues to obstruct both discovery and defendants\u2019 ability to construct a complete narrative as to the fate of Waymo\u2019s purloined files. As a practical matter, it is hard to imagine how consolidating proceedings as to Levandowski and defendants, whether here or in arbitration, could alleviate these difficulties,\u201d Alsup wrote.<\/p>\n

The decision hints that Alsup\u2019s pending decision on a preliminary injunction<\/a> might not be favorable to Uber. Waymo had asked for the injunction to prevent Uber from using its technology while the case proceeds, and Alsup\u2019s comments in the arbitration ruling suggest he\u2019s not too keen on Uber\u2019s behavior.<\/p>\n

If Waymo gets everything it wants from the injunction, it\u00a0could effectively halt Uber\u2019s self driving development plans entirely while the trial plays out.<\/p>\n

In an earlier decision, Alsup said he would release his ruling on both the motion to compel arbitration and the preliminary injunction under seal to both company\u2019s lawyers before making them public. A new entry on the docket for the case notes that Waymo\u2019s motion for a preliminary injunction has been partially granted and partially denied, but it\u2019s not clear yet which of Waymo\u2019s requests the judge will honor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a desperate bid by Uber to avoid the court\u2019s jurisdiction. We welcome the court\u2019s decision today, and we look forward to holding Uber responsible in court for its misconduct,\u201d a Waymo spokesperson said in a statement. TechCrunch reached out to Uber for comment on the ruling and will update when the company responds.<\/p>\n

Update<\/strong>: Judge Alsup has also referred the case to the U.S. Attorney<\/a> for a possible criminal investigation.<\/p>\n

Featured Image: Bryce Durbin\/TechCrunch<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\" Waymo’s lawsuit against Uber, its competitor in the automated vehicle business, is going to trial. Judge William Alsup ruled that Uber could not force the lawsuit over theft of trade secrets into private arbitration. Instead, the trial will play out publicly, with evidence being presented mostly in the open. This is not the scenario that Uber wanted. Waymo, the self-driving car subsidiary… 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-340743","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\/340743","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=340743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340743\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}