SAN FRANCISCO (CN) – A federal judge signaled Wednesday he would allow a jury to hear that Uber defied court orders to return confidential files allegedly stolen from Waymo by an engineer to develop autonomous cars for Uber, and delayed revealing that its lawyers and an investigation firm had been sitting on them for a year.
In indicating that he may allow Waymo to tell the jury about Uber's conduct at an upcoming trade-secrets trial, U.S. District Judge William Alsup cautioned multiple times that he had not yet decided whether he would ultimately order such relief. He also said he will delay ruling until after the Federal Circuit resolves an appeal over the files.
"That's the relief I think is more likely to do some good," Alsup told Waymo's lawyers, who had moved to hold Uber in contempt for failing to produce the files.
"You will be a good witness," he continued, speaking to Uber attorney Arturo Gonzalez. "You'll be right up there explaining this story to the jury."
Waymo sued Uber in February, claiming its former engineer Anthony Levandowski downloaded 14,000 files from its server just before he resigned in January 2016 to set up a competing company called Otto.
Uber announced the following August that it had acquired Otto for $680 million, three months after Otto launched publicly. Waymo claims Levandowski met with Uber’s senior executives days before he resigned, and that Uber purchased Otto to acquire Waymo’s technology so it could get self-driving cars to market first.
Analysts predict autonomous cars will eventually replace driver-operated ones completely, and that companies late in developing them will flounder. Ex-Uber CEO Travis Kalanick agreed with that assessment last year, telling Business Insider: "If we are not tied for first, then the person who is in first, or the entity that's in first, then rolls out a ride-sharing network that is far cheaper or far higher-quality than Uber's, then Uber is no longer a thing."
Urging Alsup on Wednesday to hold Uber in contempt for its purported stonewalling, Waymo attorney Charles Verhoeven said Uber violated a March expedited discovery order directing it to turn over the 14,000 files and a May preliminary injunction ordering Uber to pressure both Levandowski and its agents to do the same.
Waymo, which was spun off from Google's self-driving car program and is owned by their parent company Alphabet, also wants Uber held in contempt for not disclosing earlier that Levandowksi destroyed, allegedly at Kalanick's direction, five discs containing information he took from Waymo.
Verhoeven said the court's deadlines for returning the files and disclosing their destruction have long passed. His client wants Uber sanctioned for not doing enough to pressure digital forensics firm Stroz Friedberg and law firm Morrison & Foerster to return them.
Uber hired Stroz to conduct a due-diligence investigation on Levandowski's departure from Waymo in order to decide whether to acquire Otto, while Morrison & Forrester advised Uber during the acquisition. It is also representing Uber in the Waymo case.