SAN FRANCISCO - In a packed courtroom today, lawyers for Google's Waymo self-driving car division made their case that Uber's self-driving car chief should be kicked off the job by judicial order.
Anthony Levandowski, a former Google employee who now works on Uber's self-driving car project, has been accused by Google of stealing trade secrets before he left to create his own startup. That startup, Otto, was quickly bought by Uber for $680 million. Now Waymo has sued Uber over the alleged trade secret theft, as well as patent infringement.
"This is an extraordinary case of misappropriation of intellectual property," said Waymo lawyer Charles Verhoeven. "Mr. Levandowski downloaded over 14,000 proprietary files while he was at Waymo for use as a competitor."
Levandowski searched Google's intranet for instructions on how to download the material. Then he attached an external drive to his laptop and spent eight hours downloading files, said Verhoeven.
"He then tried to cover his tracks by wiping clean his laptop and hiding evidence," said Verhoeven. "The statements I've made, Your Honor, are undisputed. Mr. Levandowski has taken the Fifth Amendment."
Verhoeven showed planning documents from Uber suggesting that the company was considering hiring Levandowski well before he quit, without advance notice, on January 27. Before he did that, Levandowski had exchanged e-mails with Uber executives on January 12.
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks