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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

Google's Waymo is dropping most of its patent claims against Uber [bloomberg.com], narrowing the case's focus to one patent and the many trade secrets allegedly stolen:

Waymo, Alphabet Inc.'s self-driving car division, dropped three of four patent-infringement claims in its lawsuit against Uber Technologies Inc. over the startup's autonomous vehicle program.

Waymo's decision to include patent claims in its complaint against Uber was a surprise move for Google parent Alphabet, which normally prides itself on limiting patent fights. The bulk of Waymo's case is not over patents, but trade secrets.

Waymo alleges that Uber stole trade secrets from Waymo when Anthony Levandowski, who worked for Waymo, downloaded 14,000 files to his personal computer and then joined Uber to lead the startup's driverless car program. Uber fired Levandowski in late May. The executive has invoked his constitutional right against self-incrimination and has refused to testify in the case, hindering Uber's ability to defend itself against Waymo's claims.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco has asked Waymo to narrow its more than 100 trade secrets claims to fewer than 10 to put in front of a jury. In a June 7 hearing, he also said, "I want to reiterate to the plaintiff here that you should think a lot about just dropping the patent part of this case."

Also at Business Insider [businessinsider.com] and Recode [recode.net]. Vanity Fair [vanityfair.com] reports on a legal filing in the case that includes emails sent by Uber's former CEO Travis Kalanick. They depict him desperately seeking a partnership with Google and reacting to talk about Google launching an autonomous ride-hailing service.

Previously: Google Spin-Off Waymo Accuses Uber of Stealing Self-Driving Tech [soylentnews.org]
Uber Could Face Injunction Stopping It From Testing Driverless Cars [soylentnews.org]
Lyft and Waymo (Google) Team Up for Autonomous Cars [soylentnews.org]
Uber Fires Former Google Engineer Anthony Levandowski [soylentnews.org]

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