Waymo claims that Anthony Levandowski downloaded 14,000 company files onto his own computer, taking them with him when he left Google to found his own company, Otto. Uber then acquired Otto for $680 million, and soon after that, Google says it discovered that the technology employed by Otto was almost identical to its own, in particular the LiDAR technology.
It made this discovery in unusual circumstances: from a mistakenly sent email. An employee who worked for one of Waymo’s suppliers sent Waymo an email entitled “OTTO FILES” with attachments including diagrams of Otto’s LiDAR circuit board, which confirmed Waymo’s suspicions about the similarity of the two companies’ autonomous technology.
The lawsuit seeks damages for infringement of three of Google’s patents, along with an injunction to bar Uber from continuing to use any of this technology.
It is interesting that Google should bring this case, as it is rarely a plaintiff in intellectual property lawsuits, despite the large number of ex-employees meaning that a sizeable amount of its IP is likely to be at large in the technology community. Furthermore, Google is an investor in Uber with a stake of more than $250 million, and a Google executive sat on Uber’s board until shortly after their acquisition of Otto.
Waymo has said that, unlike any other IP disputes that Google may have but doesn’t act upon, this was an offence too great to ignore. Uber have yet to issue a formal statement regarding this matter.
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