Skip to main content

Tesla and Rivian are heading to court over ‘stolen trade secret’ claims

Tesla and Rivian are heading to court over the former claiming the latter stole “trade secrets” through former Tesla employees it hired.

They weren’t able to resolve this out of court; now it looks like it will be heading to trial.

In 2020, Tesla filed a lawsuit against Rivian over allegedly stealing trade secrets by hiring former employees of Tesla and encouraging them to bring documents. Rivian has denied the allegations.

At the time Tesla filed the lawsuit, it wasn’t clear what exact trade secrets Tesla was claiming Rivian had stolen, but we noted that the employees listed in the lawsuits were two recruiters, an EHS manager, and a manager of Tesla’s charging networks.

The automaker claimed that these employees brought “documents consisting of highly sensitive trade secret, confidential, and proprietary engineering information” when they went to work for Rivian.

Top comment by M McBride

Liked by 3 people

"Three years later, the context is interesting since now Tesla and Rivian have since partnered up to help the latter adopt the NACS connector, a standard designed by Tesla."

Since Tesla filed with SAE to make NACS a standard, Rivian won't need Tesla's permission to use the NACS connector. Rivian will be able to buy 3rd-party NACS connectors. If Rivian's agreement with Tesla is the same or similar to Ford's and GM's, then it involves Rivian having access to about 2/3rd of the Tesla Superchargers that are currently active.

I suspect that these companies agreed in principle to buy NACS connectors and adapters for their cars from Tesla, but I really don't know what the terms of the agreements are.

View all comments

A year later, Tesla expanded the lawsuit claiming more specifically that Rivian is “stealing the core technology for its next-generation batteries.”

Now a new ruling from a judge is allowing the case to move forward after being first initiated three years ago (via Bloomberg):

A state court judge on Wednesday tentatively denied the employees’ request for a summary adjudication ruling — which would have dismissed Tesla’s claim that they had signed agreements and other contracts that forbade them from stealing proprietary information and disclosing it to competitors. The judge granted the employees’ request for a ruling on another claim by Tesla that the workers illegally accessed the company’s computers to copy and steal data.

Once the ruling is official, it should allow Tesla to move forward with its lawsuit against Rivian and the former employees.

Three years later, the context is interesting since now Tesla and Rivian have since partnered up to help the latter adopt the NACS connector, a standard designed by Tesla.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Stay up to date with the latest content by subscribing to Electrek on Google News. You’re reading Electrek— experts who break news about Tesla, electric vehicles, and green energy, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow Electrek on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our YouTube channel for the latest reviews.

Comments

Author

Avatar for Fred Lambert Fred Lambert

Fred is the Editor in Chief and Main Writer at Electrek.

You can send tips on Twitter (DMs open) or via email: fred@9to5mac.com

Through Zalkon.com, you can check out Fred’s portfolio and get monthly green stock investment ideas.


Manage push notifications

notification icon
We would like to show you notifications for the latest news and updates.
notification icon
You are subscribed to notifications
notification icon
We would like to show you notifications for the latest news and updates.
notification icon
You are subscribed to notifications