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31 May 2017Patents

Uber fires exec at centre of Waymo row

Uber has fired the executive at the centre of its trade secrets and patent row with Google’s former self-driving car division Waymo.

The executive, Anthony Levandowski, was fired yesterday after he failed to hand over documents at the centre of the brawl, according to a letter filed by Uber’s general counsel at the US District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division.

Waymo had previously accused Levandowski of taking over 14,000 confidential files shortly before resigning from Waymo and taking them to Uber.

Earlier in May, District Judge William Alsup ordered Uber to return the files to Waymo by today, May 31.

Uber was also ordered to keep the executive away from any role or responsibility related to LiDAR (a laser-based scanning and mapping technology) and to conduct an investigation into the downloaded documents.

Later in May, Levandowski claimed in a filing that the judge’s order was unlawfully forcing Uber to fire him.

Levandowski said that Alsup had unlawfully forced Uber to fire him if he didn’t waive his Fifth Amendment rights and attorney-client privileges.

The Fifth Amendment right protects individuals from being compelled to be witnesses in criminal cases against them.

According to Uber’s letter, Levandowski was fired because he failed to comply with the judge’s order and to cooperate with Uber’s investigation.

“Your failure impeded Uber’s internal investigation and defence of the lawsuit … and constitutes a ground for termination,” said the letter.

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More on this story

Patents
22 May 2017   A former Waymo executive currently embroiled in a clash between his old company and Uber has claimed that a judge’s order is unlawfully forcing Uber to fire him.
Patents
19 September 2017   Google’s former self-driving car division Waymo has attempted to postpone its trade secrets court date with Uber because of a “mountain of new evidence”.
Patents
3 October 2017   Several media companies including Bloomberg, BuzzFeed and the Associated Press have opposed a request by Waymo to keep part of the upcoming IP jury trial with Uber a secret.