Uber employees settle defamation suit over trade secret theft claims
Former Uber security manager Richard Jacobs has settled an on-going defamation suit with several other of the company’s employees that he had accused of stealing competitor trade secrets.
Jacobs claimed that the ride-hailing giant had established a team of four employees to steal trade secrets from competitors, causing the implicated employees to launch a defamation suit against him.
Judge Saundra Armstrong filed a single-page dismissal of the lawsuit with the US District Court for the Northern District Of California on Tuesday, June 15, revealing that the parties had agreed to settle.
All scheduled dates for the suit are now vacated, giving the option for either party to reopen the case in the event that the settlement is not realised
‘Concocted false allegations’
Jacobs’ claims against the Uber employees were made public in December 2017 after a letter he had sent to Uber’s in-house counsel accusing the company of stealing trade secrets was presented in court proceedings in Waymo v Uber.
He also said that he had resigned from Uber in 2017 allegedly due to his views that the company’s threat operations team was engaged in unethical and potentially illegal activity, and claimed that he was demoted for not partaking in the activities.
The case garnered significant media attention and Jacob’s claims that Uber had established a team to spy on its rivals and steal trade secrets were widely reported.
In retaliation, the employees Mathew Henley, Nicholas Gicinto, Edward Russo and Jacob Nocon filed a complaint for defamation against Jacobs in April 2018.
They submitted evidence that Jacob’s had referred to his own claims that Uber had stolen trade secrets as “hyperbolic” while under oath in open court. Jacobs was also accused of moving confidential company materials to his own private email account.
In the complaint for defamation, the plaintiffs claimed Jacobs: “concocted false allegations about the plaintiffs in order to excuse his failing performance and distract from his attempted theft of Uber documents.”
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