Uber has issued a sternly worded letter to Anthony Levandowski, the engineer at the center of a lawsuit alleging theft of trade secrets from Google parent..<\/b>
\nUber has issued a sternly worded letter to Anthony Levandowski, the engineer at the center of a lawsuit alleging theft of trade secrets from Google parent Alphabet\u2019s self-driving technology unit Waymo. The gist? Comply with the court\u2019s orders or risk being terminated.
Levandowski is the former technology lead for Google\u2019s autonomous vehicle unit and co-founder of self-driving truck startup Otto, which Uber acquired for $680 million last summer. He is also accused of downloading tens of thousands of confidential documents related to Google\u2019s proprietary LiDAR design before leaving the company and founding Otto.
That is at the center of Waymo\u2019s case, which was filed in February and accuses Uber of misappropriating its trade secrets and infringing on patents related to its self-driving vehicle program. The suit is going to trial and there\u2019s the possibility of a criminal case being opened up as well.
But in the meantime, Waymo has argued that discovery in the case has been held up by Levandowski refusing to answer questions related to the alleged theft of proprietary data. Levandowski has repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment in the case, citing the potential for criminal action that could lead to self-incrimination.
Last week Judge William Alsup ordered that Uber \u201cexercise the full extent of [its] corporate, employment, contractual, and other authority\u201d to force Levandowski to return any downloaded materials to Waymo.
Following that, Uber on May 15 sent a letter to Levandowski giving him a choice between \u201cdeny [ing] ever having taken any downloaded materials from Google\u201d or hand over any materials he might have taken from Google. If he failed to comply, he would risk termination of his employment.
In his own filing, Levandowski\u2019s attorneys argue that the Court\u2019s order to Uber and Uber\u2019s own threats would violate his constitutional right to avoid self-incrimination.
\u201cAnything short of firing Mr. Levandowski to get him to waive his Fifth Amendment rights and attorney-client privileges would put Uber at risk of contempt, since it would fail to measure up to the Court\u2019s command that Uber exercise every lawful power it has over Mr. Levandowski, \u201d it says.<\/p>\n

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Sentiment rank: -0.9<\/div>\n

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