Waymo to judge: Stop Uber from using our trade secrets, ASAP

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SAN FRANCISCO - In a packed courtroom today, lawyers for Google's Waymo self-driving car division made their case that Uber's self-driving car chief should be kicked off the job by judicial order.

Anthony Levandowski, a former Google employee who now works on Uber's self-driving car project, has been accused by Google of stealing trade secrets before he left to create his own startup. That startup, Otto, was quickly bought by Uber for $680 million. Now Waymo has sued Uber over the alleged trade secret theft, as well as patent infringement.

"This is an extraordinary case of misappropriation of intellectual property," said Waymo lawyer Charles Verhoeven. "Mr. Levandowski downloaded over 14,000 proprietary files while he was at Waymo for use as a competitor."

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