Appeals court rejects Uber’s attempt to dodge trial: No arbitration

Enlarge / An Uber driverless Ford Fusion drives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (credit: Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

Google's self-driving car spinoff, Waymo, filed a lawsuit in February accusing Uber of acquiring its trade secrets from a former Google employee named Anthony Levandowski.

The lawsuit is quickly approaching its scheduled trial date of October 10. Now, one of Uber's last-ditch attempts to head off the impending courtroom showdown has failed.

Uber has been asking (PDF) to move the case into arbitration since shortly after it was filed. Uber argues that Google's real dispute is with Levandowski, a former Google employee who allegedly took more than 14,000 confidential files on his way out the door. Uber doesn't dispute that took place, and Levandowski has asserted his Fifth Amendment rights rather than answer questions about it. Levandowski isn't a defendant in this lawsuit, but Google has a separate arbitration against him, which is ongoing.

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