Uber says engineer is on his own for US$180 million legal award to Google
- The ride-hailing giant said its former star engineer Anthony Levandowski forfeited indemnification after he pleaded guilty to trade secret theft
- Levandowski’s lawyer, however, said Uber cannot renege on that legal cover because it vetted the engineer before hiring him
The ride-hailing firm, which recruited Levandowski in 2016 from Google parent Alphabet’s self-driving car programme, ended up firing him after the companies became embroiled in one of Silicon Valley’s highest-profile trade secrets disputes.
While Levandowski’s woes deepened this year – he agreed to plead guilty to trade secret theft and was driven into bankruptcy when Google won a contract-breach arbitration case against him – he was counting on Uber’s promise when it first hired him to provide legal cover, known as indemnification, from his former employer.
Uber has said it has no obligation to reimburse Levandowski for the US$180 million.
Levandowski “secretly committed a crime by stealing trade secrets with the intent to use them at Uber”, the ride-hailing company said in a court filing. “If Uber had known that, it never would’ve entered into any agreements with Levandowski.”