WAYMO-UBER SUIT BEGINS
Alphabet unit alleges ridesharing titan acquired thousands of stolen files
ABILLION-DOLLAR trial pitting Alphabetowned autonomous driving unit Waymo against Uber starts today, in what could be a blockbuster case between two tech giants over alleged theft of trade secrets.
The courtroom battle, here, will take place as Waymo and Uber race to perfect self-driving cars that people could summon for rides as desired in a turn away from car ownership.
The list of witnesses who might be called to testify includes ousted Uber chief Travis Kalanick as well as Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page.
The trial stems from a suit filed last year by Waymo — previously known as the Google car unit — which claimed former manager Anthony Levandowski took a trove of technical data with him when he left to launch a competing venture that went on to become Otto and was later acquired by Uber.
Levandowski is expected to be called to the stand at trial before federal judge William Alsup.
Uber last year confirmed that it fired Levandowski just ahead of a date set by a judge for the ridesharing titan to return files taken from Waymo.
Waymo’s suit contends that Levandowski in December 2015 downloaded thousands of files from a highly confidential design server to a laptop and took the data with him to the startup.
During hearings last year, the judge said Waymo “supplied a compelling record that Levandowski pilfered more than 14,000 files from Waymo”, and that Uber knew or should have known about the theft.
A key, however, will be for Waymo to prove to jurors that any swiped secrets actually made it to Uber.
Alsup begrudgingly delayed the start of trial twice, most recently to look into whether Uber connived to hide evidence.
Waymo argues in the suit that a “calculated theft” of its technology netted Otto a buyout of more than US$500 million (RM1.94 billion) and enabled Uber to revive a stalled self-driving car programme.
The Alphabet unit is seeking damages of at least US$1 billion.
Levandowski, a co-founder of Otto, had headed Uber’s efforts to develop self-driving technology for personal driving, delivery and trucking.
Waymo will need to convince jurors that data taken was actually trade secrets; that Uber used or disclosed what it learned, and that the ride-sharing company was “unjustly enriched” as a result.