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19 May 2017Patents

Waymo drops three patent claims in Uber battle

Self-driving car company Waymo has dropped three of its patent claims in a battle against Uber.

On Tuesday, May 16, Waymo, formerly a Google division, filed a response to Uber’s request for summary judgment of non-infringement.

Earlier in May, Uber had filed the request for judgment with respect to US patent numbers 8,836,922; 9,285,464; and 9,086,273, all of which concern LiDAR (a laser-based scanning and mapping technology).

Waymo had claimed that two of Uber’s devices, Spider and Fuji, had infringed the patents.

But, according to the filing, Waymo recently told Uber it would not be asserting the three patents against the Fuji device.

The self-driving car company said it informed Uber of this and asked it to withdraw what remains of the summary judgment motion.

“Uber demurred, responding: ‘Waymo is welcome to file its response to Uber’s pending motion for summary judgment tomorrow, informing the court that Waymo no longer intends to pursue patent infringement claims against Fuji’,” said the response.

Waymo could still assert US patent number 9,285,464 against the Fuji device, and could assert all four patents against the Spider device.

The statement followed an injunction  ordered on May 11 by District Judge William Alsup, who said that Uber must return its files to Waymo.

However, during the  order, Alsup explained that although the trade secrets case warranted provisional relief, Waymo’s patent infringement argument did not.

Alsup also called for the US attorney to investigate the alleged theft of Waymo’s self-driving car technology.

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