Call 855-808-4530 or email [email protected] to receive your discount on a new subscription.
“It was definitely the trade secret trial of the century,” said Robert Milligan, Los Angeles-based co-chair of Seyfarth Shaw's trade secrets, computer fraud and noncompetes practice group, who was watching the Waymo v. Uber trial from afar. “Just for the prurient interest I'm sad to see it go away,” he added.
Milligan was far from alone among lawyers in the labor and employment and intellectual property bars in the wake of the announcement on Feb. 9 that the parties had reached an agreement to settle the case in U.S. District Judge William Alsup of the Northern District of California's courtroom. The underlying dispute centered on Uber's acquisition of Ottomotto, an autonomous car company founded by former Google engineer Anthony Levandowski. At trial, Waymo's lawyers from Quinn Emanuel presented evidence that Levandowski had downloaded a trove of 14,000-plus files from Google before he left to form the startup and that he had copied the files to his personal laptop.
As part of the deal, Waymo received a 0.34% equity stake in Uber Technologies Inc., or about $245 million based on a $72 billion valuation of the ride-sharing giant. Perhaps more valuably, Waymo got assurances that Uber will not incorporate any of Waymo's confidential information into its hardware and software. Now that the case itself is, as Alsup said after the settlement announcement, “ancient history,” here are three things for lawyers to take away from the whole saga.
The details might not be quite as dramatic as they were in Waymo v. Uber, but lawyers expect trade secrets to continue to be a fertile source for litigation.
ENJOY UNLIMITED ACCESS TO THE SINGLE SOURCE OF OBJECTIVE LEGAL ANALYSIS, PRACTICAL INSIGHTS, AND NEWS IN ENTERTAINMENT LAW.
Already a have an account? Sign In Now Log In Now
For enterprise-wide or corporate acess, please contact Customer Service at [email protected] or 877-256-2473
This article highlights how copyright law in the United Kingdom differs from U.S. copyright law, and points out differences that may be crucial to entertainment and media businesses familiar with U.S law that are interested in operating in the United Kingdom or under UK law. The article also briefly addresses contrasts in UK and U.S. trademark law.
With each successive large-scale cyber attack, it is slowly becoming clear that ransomware attacks are targeting the critical infrastructure of the most powerful country on the planet. Understanding the strategy, and tactics of our opponents, as well as the strategy and the tactics we implement as a response are vital to victory.
The Article 8 opt-in election adds an additional layer of complexity to the already labyrinthine rules governing perfection of security interests under the UCC. A lender that is unaware of the nuances created by the opt in (may find its security interest vulnerable to being primed by another party that has taken steps to perfect in a superior manner under the circumstances.
In Rockwell v. Despart, the New York Supreme Court, Third Department, recently revisited a recurring question: When may a landowner seek judicial removal of a covenant restricting use of her land?