Air taxi developer Archer Aviation has asked a federal judge to toss trade-secret litigation filed by competitor Joby Aviation, insisting Joby’s claims lack merit.
Joby sued Archer last month in a California state court, alleging that Archer misused proprietary information that had been stolen by a former Joby employee.
That employee – George Kivork – left Joby for a job with Archer.
The case has since been transferred to US District Court for the Northern District of California.
In asking federal judge Susan van Keulen to dismiss the suit, Archer calls the allegations “opaque” and “legally insufficient”, and accuses Joby of suing for the purpose of undermining a competitor.
“This lawsuit … rests on speculation and innuendo rather than plausible factual allegations,” says Archer’s motion, filed on 23 January. “It is a transparent attempt to slow its most-formidable competitor – Archer – who is repeatedly winning the race to commercialise air taxis across the world.”
The judge scheduled a 24 March hearing to review the matter. Joby does not respond to a request for comment.
Outside of court, start-ups Archer and Joby, both based in California, are racing to achieve regulatory approvals for their in-development electric vertical take-off and landing air taxis. The companies are eager to convince investors that their aircraft are technologically and commercially viable.
Kivork previously headed Joby’s state and local policy efforts. He left Joby last year to join Archer, allegedly bringing with him trade secrets related to Joby’s “aircraft and operations, business and regulatory strategy, infrastructure strategy and site analysis for potential vertiports and airport access”, the lawsuit says.
Weeks after Kivork departed, Joby learned that Archer had contacted a real estate developer to which Joby had granted rights to design, build and operate air taxi facilities, Joby says.
The developer told Joby it had received a more-lucrative proposal from Archer and wanted to cancel its plans with Joby, the lawsuit says.
Archer has denied allegations that it stole or misused trade secrets.
Kivork separately filed a motion asking the judge to toss the suit.
