Electric Vehicle startup Canoo has accused several former employees of having joined it with the sole purpose of stealing trade secrets and forming a new startup. The company has filed a lawsuit against rival startup Harbinger in the United States District Court of California.
Harbinger launched this September and is led by a collection of former Canoo, Faraday Future, and QuantumScape executives, including CEO John Harris, CTO Philip Weicker, COO Will Eberts, and vice president of structures and chassis, Alexi Charbonneau, all of whom are named in Canoo’s suit, reports Insider.
In addition, Michael Fieklow, Harbinger’s general counsel, and Canoo’s former vice president of corporate legal, securities, and global strategies, is also named in the lawsuit. Canoo has filed 17 claims, accusing the people involved of stealing intellectual property, violating trade secrets policies, breaching employee separation agreements, and more.
Read: Canoo’s Future Looking A Bit Brighter After KingBee Places Their Biggest Order Yet
“This is a case of corporate espionage by a group of serial grifters who infiltrated Canoo to steal its intellectual property (including its confidential information and trade secrets) and human capital,” Canoo writes in the filing. The executives named in the case “always intended to own and control their own EV company. And they were determined to do so without letting anything get in their way.”
It alleges that Harbinger stole its skateboard architecture and other EV technologies for use on medium-duty, vehicles such as delivery vans, school buses, and others. Canoo further alleges its rival deliberately poached members of its workforce, claiming that Harbinger has recruited at least 33 of its employees.
For its part, Harbinger says that it is confident in its actions and calls Canoo’s suit “meritless.”
“Harbinger and its co-founders have always operated with the utmost integrity and have never engaged in any actions that would give rise to this meritless lawsuit,” a Harbinger said in a statement. “While we cannot provide further comment at this time, we are confident in our position and will vigorously defend ourselves against any baseless allegations brought forth by Canoo.”
