Google and Uber’s trade secrets collision: a cautionary tale for IP owners
Once upon a time, engineer Anthony Levandowski was a valuable employee who played an instrumental role in the development of self-driving technology company, Waymo, a subsidiary of Google’s parent company, Alphabet.
This changed in 2016, when he veered off course and began his destination towards federal prison. He resigned without notice, but not before downloading approximately 14,000 files to a personal device, giving him unfettered access to development schedules, product designs and other confidential information.
Levandowski then set up his own self-driving vehicle startup, Ottomotto. Subsequently, when Uber acquired Levandowski’s company for just short of $700 million, Waymo promptly sued Uber for use of its trade secrets.
A conclusion
In February 2018, Waymo secured roughly $245 million by way of settlement at the US District Court for the Northern District of California.
In August 2019, David Anderson, attorney for the US District Court for the Northern District of California, proceeded to file a criminal complaint against Levandowski. A year later, in the same court, Judge William Alsup sentenced Levandowski to 18 months imprisonment, plus financial penalties.
Trade secrets are often considered to be a US phenomenon, but the reality is different. The UK has always protected trade secrets according to its laws on confidential information. This protection has developed through both equitable principles and the evolution of common law.
In the UK, the equitable principle is premised on the following: when information is exchanged that is expressed as “secret”, or which should be understood to be secret, equity will act on the conscience of the recipient to prevent them from disclosing or using the information without authorisation.
This is embodied in Coco v AN Clark (Engineers) (1968), which introduced three requirements for confidentiality:
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