Waymo, Uber, and the Price of a Secret
[1] Background and Lawsuit In late February 2017, Waymo, a self-driving automobile company and subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., sued Uber, alleging trade secret misappropriation, patent infringement, and unfair competition.[2] The complaint claims Uber used confidential information and technology, taken by a former Waymo engineer, Anthony Levandowski, to advance Uber’s self-driving car program.[3] Levandowski was in charge of the Light Detection and Ranging (“LiDAR”) team on Waymo’s self-driving...
