Two major car companies, Uber and Waymo, are battling it out in U.S. federal courts this year over the alleged theft of Waymo trade secrets. Waymo is an autonomous-car company under the parent company of Alphabet, Inc (“Alphabet”).  Alphabet is a multinational conglomerate best known for being the parent company to Google and its many subsidiaries.  In the case at hand, Waymo alleges that a former engineer named Anthony Levandowski knowingly and improperly downloaded more than 14,000 confidential files before resigning to start his own autonomous truck-driving company.  Uber would later go on to acquire Levandowski’s startup truck company.

Currently, the two car companies are fighting over the evidence to be heard at trial.  Uber has filed several motions to suppress specific evidence regarding alleged Levandowski’s downloading of Alphabet’s confidential files.  In its lawsuit, Waymo alleges that 9 of their trade secrets have been compromised due to Levandowski.  Uber has countered with the defense that 6 of the 9 trade secrets at issue were not mentioned in the 14,000 files, and that the two of the remaining three trade secrets could be easily replicated without knowledge of Waymo files.  Lastly, Uber has stated that the last trade secret has only been vaguely alluded to in the Waymo files, lacking any sort of detail or explanation to allow for full realization or any type of production.  Waymo disagrees, noting that Levandowski specifically downloaded thousands of files that contained confidential and proprietary information about the Waymo self-driving car unit.

Waymo and Uber are also arguing over whether testimony from two former Uber directors should be allowed before the jury.  Specifically, Waymo has asked the court to allow testimony from Bill Gurley, a prominent Silicon Valley investor who had served on Uber’s board earlier this year.  Gurley had stated in a recorded deposition that he would never have approved Uber’s acquisition of Levandowski’s truck company if he had known about the downloaded files.

Uber has thoroughly denied that it accessed any of Waymo’s trade secrets, and that Alphabet itself has referred to the downloaded files as low value.  As such, Uber has moved for the evidence to be precluded from trial.  Further, Uber has asked to the judge to find Waymo’s lawsuit to be brought in bad faith, claiming that the lawsuit is a thinly disguised ploy designed to slow down Uber’s growth as the two companies are direct competitors.

In response, Waymo has stated that it should be left for the jury to consider whether the stolen files and accompanying evidence is pertinent to the trade secrets case.  Waymo believes that the jury will find that the compromised files were vital, and that Levandowski knew the value of the information and thus stole it accordingly.

Trade secrets trial can be long and costly.  Regardless of the verdict, the trade secrets at issue are no longer trade secrets once they become public during trial.  As such, it is imperative for companies that have trade secrets to employ experienced intellectual property counsel to educate their employees regarding the proper handling and protection of trade secrets.  Such counsel can draft guidelines for employees to follow as well as create employee-exit protocol that companies should undertake in order to protect their trade secrets.

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