Rebuking Uber Lawyers, Judge Delays Trade Secrets Trial
This system, Mr. Jacobs said in his testimony, “was to ensure there was no paper trail
that would come back to haunt the company in any criminal or civil litigation.”
Mr. Jacobs said this effort focused solely on overseas competitors and
that he was not aware of the unit obtaining trade secrets from Waymo or other competitors in the United States.
In testimony on Tuesday, Mr. Russo said the team did not gather information from people at competitors and did not steal trade secrets.
Judge Alsup asked Uber’s lawyers to supply an unredacted copy of the letter from Mr. Jacobs’s lawyer
and a list of all Uber employees who used the Wickr service, including employees with the autonomous vehicle group in Pittsburgh.
Earlier in the year, Judge Alsup, citing what he said was compelling evidence against Mr. Levandowski
connected to the theft of trade secrets, referred the matter to federal authorities.
An Uber spokeswoman said nothing that Mr. Jacobs said on Tuesday impacted the merits of the case against the company.
