{"id":1220,"date":"2017-05-16T12:16:20","date_gmt":"2017-05-16T16:16:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/?p=464133"},"modified":"2017-05-16T12:16:20","modified_gmt":"2017-05-16T16:16:20","slug":"this-case-is-waymo-uber-than-most-other-trade-secrets-cases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2017\/05\/16\/this-case-is-waymo-uber-than-most-other-trade-secrets-cases\/","title":{"rendered":"This Case Is Waymo Uber Than Most Other Trade Secrets Cases"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"UberSummary: This article discusses an ongoing case against Uber involving the alleged theft and use of confidential information and trade secrets by one of its employees who previously worked for its competitor, Waymo, a Google spin-off.<\/em><\/p>\n

As an employment lawyer focusing mostly on restrictive covenant and trade secrets litigation these days, I feel\u00a0like my fellow employment lawyers who deal more with harassment and discrimination claims get to talk about the headline-making cases. You know, the ones that get everyone talking. Recently, for example, the \u201cI\u2019ll do it live<\/a>\u201d guy and his bros over at Fox News provided some ready fodder.<\/p>\n

But, every once in a while, a really interesting case involving trade secrets or restrictive covenants comes up, and I\u2019m there to jump all over it. (It also gives me an opportunity to point to my own prior articles and say, \u201cSee, I told you so!\u201d)<\/p>\n

What\u2019s got me excited today is a case pending in the Northern District of California (Case No. 3:17-cv-00939) filed back in February of this year. Our friends over at Uber (and two of their friends, Ottomotto and Otto Trucking) were\u00a0sued by Waymo, which is an autonomous-vehicle development company that was spun off from Google\u2019s parent company.<\/p>\n

The case centers around Waymo\u2019s former golden boy engineer, a guy named Anthony Levandowski (who\u2019s apparently kind of smart<\/a>).\u00a0He decided to call it quits with Waymo in early 2016 and start his own company focused on self-driving big rigs. In mid-2016, however, Levandowski\u2019s company was acquired by Uber, and Levandowski took over Uber\u2019s driverless vehicle project.<\/p>\n

Okay, so Waymo lost a star employee to a competitor. It happens. So what\u2019s got Waymo so hot and bothered?<\/p>\n

Well, to quote an order<\/a>\u00a0issued yesterday by Judge William Alsup, Waymo presented \u201ccompelling evidence\u201d that Levandowski \u201cdownloaded over 14,000 confidential files from Waymo immediately before leaving his employment there,\u201d and that he left his employment \u201cunder highly suspicious circumstances.\u201d Levandowski allegedly spent eight hours downloading 9.7 gigs of data from his work laptop onto a personal data storage device, and then reformatted his work laptop with a new operating system, wiping it clean. Yikes! That\u2019s not<\/em> a good look.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not all.<\/p>\n

The order goes on to say that the evidence presented so far indicates that \u201cUber likely knew or at least should have known that Levandowski had taken and retained possession of Waymo\u2019s confidential files.\u201d More specifically, the order recounts that Uber engaged a digital forensics and litigation support firm to perform \u201cdue diligence\u201d on the data provided by Levandowski, and took certain steps to prepare for anticipated litigation against Waymo very early on.<\/p>\n

Although the order notes that not all of the files constituted trade secrets, there were enough trade secrets in the thousands of files to warrant some injunctive relief at this early stage of the case while the lawsuit unfolds. Judge Alsup ordered the defendants to, among other things, turn the misappropriated data back over to Waymo and provide detailed accountings of every conversation, meeting, text message, email, etc. in which the misappropriated data was discussed. Good times!<\/p>\n

So kids, what lesson have we learned today? (Here\u2019s the part where I get to say, \u201cSee, I told you so!\u201d)<\/p>\n

Like I\u2019ve discussed before<\/a>, when employees leave their jobs, it\u2019s a bad idea to take data, documents, or other materials from former employers before (or after) leaving. If the information isn\u2019t something that can be easily found through an Internet search, it\u2019s most likely a bad idea to take it. (Even then it\u2019s probably still not a good idea to take the information.) Taking or using confidential information could constitute trade secret misappropriation under the Defend Trade Secrets Act and other federal and state-specific laws.<\/p>\n

And, as this case shows us, even the smartest, most tech-savvy folks get caught in these kinds of shenanigans. Consider this: Levandowski has his bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees in engineering from Berkeley, and he built an autonomous motorcycle with his friends in his mid-twenties that’s now on display in the\u00a0Smithsonian\u00a0National Museum of American History.<\/p>\n

If this guy couldn\u2019t pull off taking some\u00a0data from a former employer without giving rise to allegations of theft, do you really think most anyone else has a chance? Probably not.<\/p>\n

\n

\"evan-gibbs\"Evan Gibbs is an attorney at Troutman Sanders<\/a>, where he primarily litigates employment cases and handles traditional labor matters. Connect with him on LinkedIn here<\/a>, or e-mail him here<\/a>. (The views expressed in this column are his own.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even the smartest, most tech-savvy folks can get caught in trade-secret shenanigans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37174,"featured_media":405525,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[631,632,11],"tags":[1229,1230,266,1244,1231,1232,85,1233,625,629,1234,7,848,1235,1236,1237,1238],"class_list":["post-1220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-labor-employment","category-on-the-job","category-technology","tag-anthony-levandowski","tag-cars","tag-crime","tag-defend-trade-secrets-act-a","tag-driverless-cars","tag-google","tag-intellectual-property","tag-judge-william-alsup","tag-labor-employment","tag-on-the-job","tag-self-driving-cars","tag-technology","tag-trade-secrets","tag-uber","tag-waymo","tag-william-alsup","tag-william-h-alsup"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThis Case Is Waymo Uber Than Most Other Trade Secrets Cases - Above The Law's Legal Tech Non-Event<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2017\/05\/16\/this-case-is-waymo-uber-than-most-other-trade-secrets-cases\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"This Case Is Waymo Uber Than Most Other Trade Secrets Cases - Above The Law's Legal Tech Non-Event\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Even the smartest, most tech-savvy folks can get caught in trade-secret shenanigans.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2017\/05\/16\/this-case-is-waymo-uber-than-most-other-trade-secrets-cases\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Above The Law's Legal Tech Non-Event\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-05-16T16:16:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Evan Gibbs\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Evan Gibbs\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2017\/05\/16\/this-case-is-waymo-uber-than-most-other-trade-secrets-cases\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2017\/05\/16\/this-case-is-waymo-uber-than-most-other-trade-secrets-cases\/\",\"name\":\"This Case Is Waymo Uber Than Most Other Trade Secrets Cases - Above The Law's Legal Tech Non-Event\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2017\/05\/16\/this-case-is-waymo-uber-than-most-other-trade-secrets-cases\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2017\/05\/16\/this-case-is-waymo-uber-than-most-other-trade-secrets-cases\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-05-16T16:16:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-05-16T16:16:20+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/#\/schema\/person\/430bca7046d0e827e24fa748d06164a7\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2017\/05\/16\/this-case-is-waymo-uber-than-most-other-trade-secrets-cases\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2017\/05\/16\/this-case-is-waymo-uber-than-most-other-trade-secrets-cases\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2017\/05\/16\/this-case-is-waymo-uber-than-most-other-trade-secrets-cases\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2017\/05\/16\/this-case-is-waymo-uber-than-most-other-trade-secrets-cases\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"This Case Is Waymo Uber Than Most Other Trade Secrets Cases\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/\",\"name\":\"Above The Law's Legal Tech Non-Event\",\"description\":\"A Legal Tech Adoption Guide For Perplexed Lawyers\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/#\/schema\/person\/430bca7046d0e827e24fa748d06164a7\",\"name\":\"Evan Gibbs\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e571c04b45090fbbac72c71e98163addc022fb06bcbed516a278d1af2aa978ea?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e571c04b45090fbbac72c71e98163addc022fb06bcbed516a278d1af2aa978ea?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Evan Gibbs\"},\"description\":\"Evan Gibbs is an attorney at Troutman Sanders where he litigates employment cases and handles traditional labor matters. Connect with him on LinkedIn here, or e-mail him here.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/author\/evangibbs\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"This Case Is Waymo Uber Than Most Other Trade Secrets Cases - Above The Law's Legal Tech Non-Event","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2017\/05\/16\/this-case-is-waymo-uber-than-most-other-trade-secrets-cases\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"This Case Is Waymo Uber Than Most Other Trade Secrets Cases - Above The Law's Legal Tech Non-Event","og_description":"Even the smartest, most tech-savvy folks can get caught in trade-secret shenanigans.","og_url":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2017\/05\/16\/this-case-is-waymo-uber-than-most-other-trade-secrets-cases\/","og_site_name":"Above The Law's Legal Tech Non-Event","article_published_time":"2017-05-16T16:16:20+00:00","author":"Evan Gibbs","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Evan Gibbs","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2017\/05\/16\/this-case-is-waymo-uber-than-most-other-trade-secrets-cases\/","url":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2017\/05\/16\/this-case-is-waymo-uber-than-most-other-trade-secrets-cases\/","name":"This Case Is Waymo Uber Than Most Other Trade Secrets Cases - Above The Law's Legal Tech Non-Event","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2017\/05\/16\/this-case-is-waymo-uber-than-most-other-trade-secrets-cases\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2017\/05\/16\/this-case-is-waymo-uber-than-most-other-trade-secrets-cases\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"","datePublished":"2017-05-16T16:16:20+00:00","dateModified":"2017-05-16T16:16:20+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/#\/schema\/person\/430bca7046d0e827e24fa748d06164a7"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2017\/05\/16\/this-case-is-waymo-uber-than-most-other-trade-secrets-cases\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2017\/05\/16\/this-case-is-waymo-uber-than-most-other-trade-secrets-cases\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2017\/05\/16\/this-case-is-waymo-uber-than-most-other-trade-secrets-cases\/#primaryimage","url":"","contentUrl":""},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2017\/05\/16\/this-case-is-waymo-uber-than-most-other-trade-secrets-cases\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"This Case Is Waymo Uber Than Most Other Trade Secrets Cases"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/#website","url":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/","name":"Above The Law's Legal Tech Non-Event","description":"A Legal Tech Adoption Guide For Perplexed Lawyers","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/#\/schema\/person\/430bca7046d0e827e24fa748d06164a7","name":"Evan Gibbs","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e571c04b45090fbbac72c71e98163addc022fb06bcbed516a278d1af2aa978ea?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e571c04b45090fbbac72c71e98163addc022fb06bcbed516a278d1af2aa978ea?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Evan Gibbs"},"description":"Evan Gibbs is an attorney at Troutman Sanders where he litigates employment cases and handles traditional labor matters. Connect with him on LinkedIn here, or e-mail him here.","url":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/author\/evangibbs\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37174"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1220\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}