Waymo-Uber Judge Torn Over Strong Evidence Minus Smoking Gun

The judge presiding over Waymo’s trade-secrets fight with Uber said it seems “overwhelmingly clear“ the engineer at the center of the case took confidential files but there’s no “smoking gun“ proof the ride-hailing company illegally used the information, according to Bloomberg.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup told lawyers he’s torn over what to do in a “hypothetical situation where there’s this threat of use“ of Alphabet’s proprietary information, “but it’s not yet proven.“ The judge’s comments cast doubt on whether he’ll grant Waymo’s request to freeze Uber’s efforts to develop a fully autonomous car until a jury issues a verdict in the case.

Waymo has made a strong case that engineer Anthony Levandowski downloaded 14,000 files before he left the company to form a startup that he later sold to Uber, but “there’s not much proof“ Uber used the allegedly purloined information in its research and development, Alsup said during a hearing in San Francisco.

Alsup said Uber may have known Levandowski was “radioactive" and took “affirmative steps" to insulate itself from trouble over the material he had downloaded at Waymo. It’s also possible there was a surreptitious scheme to use the files in Uber’s designs, he said. “You have one of the strongest records I’ve seen in a long time of someone doing something bad, so good for you," Alsup told Waymo’s lawyers. “You could bust the case wide open and prove that happened, but that has not happened yet.

Waymo presented new evidence that it says shows Levandowski and Uber were in cahoots while he was still employed by the Alphabet unit, internal Uber emails detailing negotiations with the engineer over the launch of a new driverless technology company and an Uber stock award to him dated the day after he left Waymo in January 2016.

An Uber spokesman said the stock grant was actually issued in August and that the payment dating back to January represents compensation for Levandowski for his time at his own startup, Otto. Uber also said that the vesting of the shares is tied to Levandowski meeting technical milestones over time and that to date, none of his shares are vested.