Waymo Drops All But One Patent Claim Against Uber (fortune.com) 21
Google's Waymo has dismissed three of its four patent-infringement claims against Uber. An anonymous reader quotes Fortune:
This comes after Waymo was encouraged to drop the claims following U.S. District Judge William Alsup's request that both parties narrow their issues for the trial. Additionally, Waymo dropped all but one of the patent claims because Uber abandoned its "Spider" LiDAR design, which had reportedly infringed upon the Waymo patents. The fourth patent claim, however, relates to a LiDAR design called, "Fuji," that the ride-hailing giant continues to use, according to Bloomberg...
In a statement to Fortune, a Waymo spokesperson said, "We found after fighting for discovery a device created by Anthony Levandowski at Uber that infringed Waymo patents. Uber has assured the court in statements made under penalty of perjury that it no longer uses and will not use that device, so we have narrowed the issues for trial by dismissing the patent claims as to that device, with the right to re-file suit if needed." The spokesman added, "We continue to pursue a patent claim against Uber's current generation device and our trade secret claims, which are not at all affected by this stipulated dismissal. We look forward to trial."
Uber called Waymo's move "yet another sign that they have overpromised and can't deliver. Not only have they uncovered zero evidence of any of the 14,000 files in question coming to Uber, they now admit that Uber's LiDAR design is actually very different than theirs.
In a statement to Fortune, a Waymo spokesperson said, "We found after fighting for discovery a device created by Anthony Levandowski at Uber that infringed Waymo patents. Uber has assured the court in statements made under penalty of perjury that it no longer uses and will not use that device, so we have narrowed the issues for trial by dismissing the patent claims as to that device, with the right to re-file suit if needed." The spokesman added, "We continue to pursue a patent claim against Uber's current generation device and our trade secret claims, which are not at all affected by this stipulated dismissal. We look forward to trial."
Uber called Waymo's move "yet another sign that they have overpromised and can't deliver. Not only have they uncovered zero evidence of any of the 14,000 files in question coming to Uber, they now admit that Uber's LiDAR design is actually very different than theirs.
Re: (Score:1)
How can Waymo or Uber expect any of its engineers to do real work while stuff like this is going on?
They can do all the real work they want. They just can't steal the IP from another company. As a side note, stealing IP is not technically "engineering".
Waymo should have at least waited until Uber launched an actual product into wide release before suing.
So that way Uber would spend billions developing a technology they would not be able to use? Makes sense.
This benefits Lyft (Score:3)
Waymo have an agreement [nytimes.com] to pursue self-driving cars with Lyft, the main Uber competitor. Uber have fired [bbc.com] their principal self-driving car engineer. Meanwhile Uber is in disarray due to alleged toxic [vanityfair.com] working place conditions.
The objective of this lawsuit is not for Waymo to win a settlement, they probably don't care so much about the money, it is to win time and mindshare by burying Uber in this corner of the market.
Personally I think self-driving cars are coming but the engineering challenges are still formidable, perhaps these fights are premature.