Uber faces jury trial over ‘theft’ of ridesharing concept
Uber will face a new jury trial, and the possibility of substantial damages, after a Californian court ruled that an inventor can pursue a claim of theft and misappropriation.
A jury at the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco found the claim of plaintiffs Kevin Halpern and Celluride Wireless to be timely, and not beyond the time bounds to take legal action., according to documents filed on Friday, February 21.
In the original July 2015 court filing, at the US District Court for the Northern District of California, inventor Kevin Halpern claimed that he was the “the inventor of the P2P transportation industry now commonly known as the ridesharing industry”, and more specifically the “technology now embodied” in the Uber app.
Halpern transferred his rights to the IP, copyrights and “technology he developed” to Celluride, his now defunct technology company that was also named as a plaintiff, the filing said.
According to Halpern, as he began to develop the idea of a ridesharing service back in 2002, he prepared “a business plan, sketches, and other designs”.
He alleged that he shared those documents and other information, in confidence, with the defendants, primarily Uber’s co-founder Travis Kalanick, under the premise the discussions would remain secret.
Kalanick later helped launched Uber in 2010, remaining on the board until 2017, before selling most of his stock in the company for almost $2.5 billion.
Uber has emerged as the US market leader in providing peer-to-peer ridesharing, which underwent rapid growth around the turn of the century.
A new jury will need to decide if Uber did in fact misappropriate Halpern’s trade secrets and if the taxi app is liable for damages.
The named defendants in the original case also included Garrett Camp (another Uber co-founder) and Scott Belsky (an advisor to Uber).
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