Waymo v Uber trial postponed, contentious report unsealed
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.
Yesterday, October 3, Judge William Alsup at the US District Court for the Northern District of California granted Waymo’s request to delay the suit.
In September, Waymo, a self-driving technology company that started at Google, attempted to postpone the court date because of a “mountain of new evidence”.
Waymo had submitted its request in light of a US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decision which upheld a ruling that Waymo could see a confidential report written by risk management firm Stroz Friedberg.
The firm had investigated employees of Uber’s self-driving subsidiary Ottomotto who were previously employed by Waymo, and the resulting report has been at the centre of the discovery dispute.
One of the executives investigated was Anthony Levandowski, a former manager at Waymo who had been accused by Waymo of downloading more than 14,000 highly confidential and proprietary files shortly before resigning and leaving for Uber.
Uber opposed Waymo’s request for a delay, accusing Waymo of seeking to postpone the trial “to shore up its shaky case”.
Then, on Monday, October 2, the Stroz Friedberg report was unsealed.
According to the report, Levandoswki said there were no or few Google e-mails on his laptop, but the firm said it discovered “approximately 50,000 Google work e-mail messages that were downloaded onto Levandowski's computer on September 20, 2014”.
“It is difficult to believe that Levandowski was not, prior to his interview, fully aware of the extent of the data that he had retained,” said the report.
Yesterday, WIPR reported that media companies Bloomberg, BuzzFeed and the Associated Press opposed a request by Waymo to keep part of the upcoming jury trial with Uber a secret.
A spokesperson for Waymo said it welcomed the ruling and that new evidence continues to come to light through “thousands of documents and hundreds of previously unexamined devices” that Uber is now providing.
“We are reviewing these materials and look forward to presenting our case at trial," they said.
Did you enjoy reading this story? Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox.
Sink or swim: sperm bank takes on former employees who set up rival firm
A vote of no confidence: when politicians run into IP trouble
1.2 million pirated goods seized by Nigerian authorities
