ubz-1-1
19 September 2017Patents

Waymo seeks to postpone Uber trial date

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”.

On Saturday, September 16, Waymo submitted its request to delay the trial, which was due to take place on October 10, in light of a US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruling last week.

The Federal Circuit  upheld a ruling that Waymo could see a confidential report written by risk management firm Stroz Friedberg.

Stroz Friedberg had investigated Otto employees previously employed by Waymo and the resulting report has been at the centre of the discovery dispute in the clash.

“With so much material only now seeing the light of day, Waymo would be unfairly prejudiced if the trial proceeds … without additional time to pursue this mountain of new evidence,” said Waymo in its  request (pdf).

Anthony Levandowski, an ex-Waymo manager involved in the dispute, had appealed to the Federal Circuit, but the court found that the executive hadn’t established his entitlement to a writ of mandamus.

The  battle between the companies began in February 2017 when Waymo targeted Uber and its subsidiary Otto over alleged patent infringement and theft of trade secrets.

Levandowski, who is not a defendant in the dispute, was accused by Waymo of downloading more than 14,000 highly confidential and proprietary files shortly before resigning.

The files included Waymo’s LiDAR (a laser-based scanning and mapping technology) circuit board designs.

Levandowski was employed by Uber but, in May, he was  fired after failing to hand over documents at the centre of the dispute, according to a letter filed by Uber’s general counsel at the US District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division.

Yesterday, September 18, Uber opposed Waymo’s request for a delay, accusing Waymo of seeking to postpone the trial “to shore up its shaky case”.

“And the heart of Waymo’s case—that Levandowski supposedly sat at a computer and selected 14,000 important proprietary files to be downloaded—has collapsed like a house of cards,” added Uber.

Uber argued that Waymo has now asked for the continuance after making the decision in June 2017 to proceed “with expedited discovery and a trial in October 2017 despite not having the Stroz report”.

Did you enjoy reading this story?  Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox

Today’ top stories:

Steve Madden accused of design patent infringement

Carrie Underwood tangled up in copyright claim

Battle of the law firms: Fish IP v Fish & Richardson

Already registered?

Login to your account

To request a FREE 2-week trial subscription, please signup.
NOTE - this can take up to 48hrs to be approved.

Two Weeks Free Trial

For multi-user price options, or to check if your company has an existing subscription that we can add you to for FREE, please email Adrian Tapping at atapping@newtonmedia.co.uk


More on this story

Patents
14 September 2017   The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has rejected Uber’s bid to move its trade secrets clash with Waymo into arbitration.
Patents
27 September 2017   Uber is fighting to stay on London’s roads after the city’s transport regulator said its private hire operator licence will not be renewed after it expires on September 30, prompting a likely legal battle.
article
4 October 2017   The trade secrets clash between Waymo and Uber has been postponed until December, one day after a report at the centre of the dispute was unsealed.