Federal prosecutors will investigate claims made by Waymo in its ongoing court case with Uber after a request from U.S. District Judge Williams Alsup.
The judge says he hasn’t taken a position on whether prosecution is warranted but confirmation of a criminal investigation comes not long after the lawyer for Anthony Levandowski said the engineer could be the subject of an investigation.
Levandowski has pleaded the fifth and refused to testify in a case where Waymo claims he downloaded 14,000 documents from the technology company before moving to Uber and colluding with the ride-hailing giant to steal trade secrets.
On May 3, Alsup said Waymo had yet to present a “smoking gun” to prove any wrongdoing by Uber but according to prominent Silicon Valley intellectual property lawyer Jim Pooley, the involvement of federal prosecutors makes things harder for Uber.
“There’s an implication that the judge sees something serious enough that it deserves the attention of authorities to consider whether a crime has been committed.
“The potential for an actual criminal proceeding makes it that much more difficult to control, or affect the ultimate outcome of the dispute,” he told Bloomberg.
On Thursday last week, Alsup denied Uber’s request for the claims to be moved into closed-door arbitration meaning a public trial in October is likely.
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