BlogLine

Waymo v. Uber – Addressing the Stakes of Driverless Car Trade Secrets and Intellectual Property

2/12/18

By: Courtney K. Mazzio
The litigation surrounded a man named Anthony Levandowski, a former Waymo employee who took thousands of documents with him when he left Waymo in 2015 to pursue his own company. Uber purchased Levandowski’s company, giving Levandowski the lead role in its efforts to get their self-driving vehicle technology off the ground. At issue in the lawsuit between Uber and Waymo was the lidar laser sensor, which Levandowski had helped develop while at Waymo. In short, this technology measures distance to a target, and so, is used in the control and navigation of self-driving cars. As you might imagine, this technology in the infancy of the driverless car development was a highly coveted piece of intellectual property.
Settlement talks were initially in the billions, but the final figure was 245 million, or 0.34 percent of Uber’s current company valuation. The agreement also includes a provision to insure Waymo’s confidential information is not incorporated into Uber technology.
This settlement not only protects Uber’s driverless car momentum in their race to be the first taxi service to successfully utilize the technology at a relatively cheap price, but also maintains Waymo’s position at the forefront of the self-driving technology. To insure this position enjoys longevity, employees of Waymo can expect they will likely be tightening its control and security over confidential information and property developed within its walls.
If you have any questions or would like some more information, please contact Courtney Mazzio at cmazzio@fmglaw.com.