Reuters reported that US prosecutors on Monday charged a criminal case against a former senior Google engineer. This person was allegedly stealing secret technology from a self-driving car unit of Google before joining rival Uber Technologies Inc.
Specifically, the Justice Department accused Anthony Levandowski – a former Waymo employee, a subsidiary of Alphabet (owned by Google) – that downloaded thousands of files from the Waymo server before leaving the company in 2015.
The files Levandowski downloaded are believed to have helped the engineer gain access to the company’s dozens of “trade secrets”. In 2016, Levandowski set up a separate self-driving truck company before being acquired by Uber.
The allegation against Levandowski was the main part of the Waymo suit filed in February 2017 against Uber. The lawsuit was settled after Uber agreed to pay $ 246 million in compensation. For now, Levandowski’s lawyer still maintains that his client is innocent and has not stolen anything from Waymo.
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| Anthony Levandowski – former Uber’s self-driving car program director, who worked at Google on a similar project – was indicted by the US federal government for stealing trade secrets. |
Under US law, a trade secret is an economically valuable information or technology that is kept private by its competitors from the eyes of competitors. Coca-Cola’s own formula is a prime example of a trade secret.
Usually, companies with advanced technology will want their inventions to be a trade secret instead of being protected by patents.
The reason is that the patent is for a definite term and then the invention will be widely used. Meanwhile, the protection of trade secrets can exist indefinitely, or at least until the information is kept confidential.
Companies accusing their rivals of stealing trade secrets happen quite often. According to analyst firm Lex Machina, in 2017, more than 1,100 such civil cases were filed in the US federal court.
According to Reuters , in order to successfully condemn Levandowski, the prosecutor needs to prove that the files downloaded by the engineer contain trade secrets.
Levandowski, meanwhile, may argue that Waymo’s designs don’t qualify as trade secrets. The reason may be given by the former engineer is that Waymo has not taken full legal steps to protect these trade secrets.
If convicted, Levandowski faces up to 10 years in prison. However, if he agrees to plead guilty instead of defending himself in a trial, Levandowski could face only a shorter sentence.