{"id":341464,"date":"2017-05-20T02:48:32","date_gmt":"2017-05-19T18:48:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/?p=1493459"},"modified":"2017-05-20T02:48:32","modified_gmt":"2017-05-19T18:48:32","slug":"uber-threatened-to-fire-engineer-at-center-of-waymo-trade-secret-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/uber-threatened-to-fire-engineer-at-center-of-waymo-trade-secret-lawsuit\/","title":{"rendered":"Uber threatened to fire engineer at center of Waymo trade secret lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Uber has issued a sternly worded letter to\u00a0Anthony Levandowski, the engineer at the center of a lawsuit alleging theft of trade secrets from Google parent Alphabet\u2019s self-driving technology unit Waymo. The gist? Comply with the court\u2019s orders\u00a0or risk being terminated.<\/p>\n

Levandowski is\u00a0the former technology\u00a0lead for\u00a0Google\u2019s autonomous vehicle unit and co-founder of self-driving truck startup Otto, which Uber acquired for $680 million<\/a> last summer. He is also accused of downloading tens of thousands of\u00a0confidential documents\u00a0related to Google\u2019s proprietary LiDAR design before leaving the company and founding Otto.<\/p>\n

That is at the center of\u00a0Waymo\u2019s case, which was filed in February<\/a> and accuses Uber of misappropriating its\u00a0trade secrets and infringing on patents related to its self-driving vehicle program. The suit\u00a0is going to trial<\/a>\u00a0and there\u2019s the possibility of a criminal case being opened up<\/a> as well.<\/p>\n

But in the meantime, Waymo has argued that discovery in the case has been held up by Levandowski refusing to answer questions related to the alleged theft of proprietary data. Levandowski has repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment<\/a>\u00a0in the case, citing the potential for criminal action that could lead to self-incrimination.<\/p>\n

Last week Judge William Alsup ordered\u00a0that Uber \u201cexercise the full extent of [its] corporate, employment, contractual, and other authority\u201d to force\u00a0Levandowski to return any\u00a0downloaded materials to Waymo.<\/p>\n

Following that, Uber on May 15 sent\u00a0a letter \u00a0to Levandowski giving him a choice between \u201cdeny[ing] ever having taken any downloaded materials from Google\u201d or hand over any materials he might have taken from Google. If he failed to comply, he would risk termination of his employment.<\/p>\n

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[A]s you know, your employment at Uber is on an at-will basis. See A. Levandowski Employment Agreement, Aug. 17, 2016 \u00b6 5(a) (\u201cAugust 17, 2016 Employment Agreement\u201d). As a condition of your employment at Uber, you must comply with all of the requirements set forth in this letter. If you do not agree to comply with all of the requirements set forth herein, or if you fail to comply in a material manner, then Uber will take adverse employment action against you, which may include termination of your employment and such termination would be for Cause.<\/p>\n

If you comply with these requirements, your employment at Uber will continue on an at- will basis. For the avoidance of doubt, Uber retains the sole right to determine whether you are in compliance with the requirements set forth above.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In his own filing, Levandowski\u2019s attorneys argue that the Court\u2019s order to Uber and Uber\u2019s own threats would violate his constitutional right to avoid self-incrimination.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnything short of firing Mr. Levandowski to get him to waive his Fifth Amendment rights and attorney-client privileges would put Uber at risk of contempt, since it would fail to measure up to the Court\u2019s command that Uber exercise every lawful power it has over Mr. Levandowski,\u201d it says.<\/p>\n

Featured Image: ANGELO MERENDINO\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\" Uber has issued a sternly worded letter to Anthony Levandowski, the engineer at the center of a lawsuit alleging theft of trade secrets from Google parent Alphabet’s self-driving technology unit Waymo. The gist? Comply with the court’s orders or risk being terminated. 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-341464","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\/341464","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=341464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341464\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}