Electric aircraft startup accuses rival of stealing trade secrets
The age of electric planes may still be years away, but the fight for that market is already heating up.
Wisk Aero, a startup developing an electric aircraft that takes off like a helicopter and flies like a plane, on Tuesday sued another startup, Archer Aviation, accusing it of stealing trade secrets and infringing on Wisk’s patents.
The lawsuit brings into public view a dispute between two littleknown companies in a business that has become a playground for billionaires. It also entangles giants of aviation and technology. Wisk is a joint venture of Boeing and Kitty Hawk, which is financed by Larry Page, who co-founded Google. Archer’s investors include United Airlines, which is a major Boeing customer and plans to buy up to 200 aircraft from the startup.
The niche market for electric vehicles and planes has become frenzied in recent months as so-called blank-check companies, which have little more than a stock market listing and a pot of cash, have snapped up fledgling businesses with little or no revenue, let alone profits. Investors in the blankcheck firms formally known as special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs are hoping to acquire businesses that they believe could follow Tesla’s recent trajectory on the stock market. To entice those investors, startups such as Archer promise top-notch technology and optimistic business plans.
In its lawsuit, Wisk contends the intellectual property that
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Archer promoted as part of its merger was stolen by engineers the company hired from Wisk.
Filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the lawsuit accuses two engineers of downloading thousands of files containing confidential designs and data before leaving Wisk to join Archer. Wisk accused a third engineer of wiping history of his activities from his computer before leaving for Archer.
“Wisk brings this lawsuit to stop a brazen theft of its intellectual property and confidential information and protect the substantial investment of resources and years of hard work and effort of its employees and their vision of the future in urban air transportation,” the lawsuit says.
Archer denied wrongdoing.
“It’s regrettable that Wisk would engage in litigation in an attempt to deflect from the business issues that have caused several of its employees to depart,” Archer said in a statement. “The plaintiff raised these matters over a year ago, and after looking into them thoroughly, we have no reason to believe any proprietary Wisk technology ever made its way to Archer. We intend to defend ourselves vigorously.”