Alphabet Loses Another Trade Secret Claim In Its Lawsuit Against Uber (recode.net) 10
In a new order dated Nov. 2, Judge William Alsup said that Alphabet's self-driving arm Waymo cannot pursue one of the nine trade secrets it had accused Uber of misappropriating. The company had already been ordered to narrow its more than 120 trade secrets down to nine. Recode reports: The judge said, among other things, that the expert opinion that Alphabet used to assert this claim was unreliable. While the other eight trade secrets remain intact, it's worth mentioning this was the same expert that Waymo relied on to substantiate those claims. "Waymo's case continues to shrink," an Uber spokesperson said. "After dropping their patent claims, this week Waymo lost one of the trade secrets they claimed was most important, had their damages expert excluded, and saw an entire defendant removed from the case -- and all this before the trial has even started." An Alphabet spokesperson said the document did provide additional evidence to bolster its remaining claims. Additionally, Alphabet's case for the monetary damages it wanted -- more than $1 billion for a single trade secret -- will rest squarely on its own arguments. In a yet-unsealed document, the judge said that Alphabet could not call on its damages expert during the trial.
Is "expert" synonymous with compensated? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, none of this is surprising; if you think you have hundreds of trade secrets, you might have a handful. Trade secrets have a narrow legal definition and not everything that your business chooses to keep confidential is automatically a trade secret, but companies like to claim as many as they can. The real case (eg, damages) is only going to be about the small handful that are meaningful.
Sounds familiar... (Score:2)
All your judges are belong to us!