Tesla stays litigious on former employees at Rivian
The legal dispute between Tesla and Rivian over the alleged theft of trade secrets by former Tesla employees who migrated to Rivian is entering the next round. Although both companies are now cooperating on the NACS charging network, this fight goes on.
According to Bloomberg, a judge in California on Wednesday preliminarily denied the employees’ motion to dismiss Tesla’s claim that they signed agreements prohibiting them from stealing confidential information and sharing it with competitors.
The judge did, however, grant another motion by the employees to rule on another claim by Tesla accusing the employees of illegally accessing the company’s computers to copy and steal data. If the ruling is finalized, the two cases can finally go to trial: the breach of contract issue and the accusation that Rivian and the former Tesla employees violated California’s trade secret laws.
Tesla alleged in its lawsuit, filed in July 2020 and revised in 2021 that Rivian directly hired at least 70 of its former employees, some of whom were “caught in the act” stealing core technology for “its next-generation batteries.” Rivian has denied any wrongdoing and says Tesla’s lawsuit is an attempt to hinder competition in the electric car market.
Notwithstanding the legal dispute, Rivian and Tesla entered into a charging infrastructure collaboration in June of this year.
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