Uber and Google set to go to trial over intellectual property dispute

Google’s Waymo is taking Uber to court for allegedly stealing trade secrets related to self-driving technology in one of Silicon Valley's biggest legal battles in years.

Waymo claimed that former employee Anthony Levandowski, a leading figure in autonomous driving research, was in talks with Uber before leaving the Google company and that he stole more than 14,000 confidential documents.

When he left Google, Levandowski founded Otto, an autonomous trucking company which was then acquired by Uber for $680m.

"This is not a case where an engineer accidentally stepped over the line from know-how to stealing trade secrets because they didn't know where the line was," a Waymo spokesman said. "The evidence shows that Levandowski and other individuals at Uber intentionally and willfully misappropriated Waymo's trade secrets."

Uber has said that although it acknowledges the documents were taken, it insists nothing useful was gained from them.

Levandowski is expected to appear in court as a witness but he has pleaded the protection of the Fifth Amendment, which allows him not to say anything that could incriminate him.

If Uber loses the trial it could be expected to pay a huge sum in damages or the court could decide to block Uber’s self-driving programme to ensure none of the secrets have been put to practice.

Judge William Alsup, the federal judge in San Francisco in charge of the case has had to speak out to make clear the case isn’t set out to demonise Uber.

"The central issues in this case remains whether or not Uber misappropriated Uber's trade secrets, not whether Uber is an evil corporation.”