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Uber’s Anthony Levandowski out as Advanced Technologies lead amid legal fight

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Re: Uber’s Anthony Levandowski out as Advanced Technologies lead amid legal fight

#4

Post by awalton »

kaladaraos wrote: post #3

Is there any reason not to be suspicious that Levandowski will just work on them unofficially?

Probably not going to matter either way - Google's got them dead to rights, will likely win a complete injunction against the program...

Re: Uber’s Anthony Levandowski out as Advanced Technologies lead amid legal fight

#5

Post by glangdale »

Can this conceivably make a difference at this late stage? Genuinely curious. Surely if a judge accepts the theory that Levandowski helped Uber's program along with stolen IP, having him 'no longer working on the program' at this stage would have to look like window dressing. Doesn't it just make them look worse, like they are admitting that there's a problem?

Re: Uber’s Anthony Levandowski out as Advanced Technologies lead amid legal fight

#6

Post by ChuckMcM »

jacquesm wrote: post #2

That's just Uber trying avoid having their self-driving car department shut-down. But it could definitely still happen. Maybe Uber should apply to Google's 'PatentShield' program ;)

That would be hilarious (the Patentshield application). It is also rare to have one of these disputes happening with such wide visibility. And reading the coverage so far it sounds like Levandowski chose to interpret the meaning of his employment agreement with Google much more charitably than Google does (which is somewhat expected on Google's part). I went back and looked at mine from 2006 (which was the year earlier version so they could have been fairly similar) and its pretty clear about what steps you need to take to clear your "side projects" with Google. The most obvious being you have to ask permission.

Challenging times indeed.

Re: Uber’s Anthony Levandowski out as Advanced Technologies lead amid legal fight

#8

Post by ChuckMcM »

kaladaraos wrote: post #3

Is there any reason not to be suspicious that Levandowski will just work on them unofficially?

Presumption of innocence. You have to assume that the people are innocent until they are proven guilty. If you fired Levandowski and win the case, then he sues. If you leave him in place and you're found guilty, there are extra damages because you were "notified" and you still didn't stop his work. So you move him off to the side, wait for the trial to resolve. And then figure out what to do with him, which will be either fire him or move him back on to the project.

Re: Uber’s Anthony Levandowski out as Advanced Technologies lead amid legal fight

#9

Post by arkitaip »

jacquesm wrote: post #2

That's just Uber trying avoid having their self-driving car department shut-down. But it could definitely still happen. Maybe Uber should apply to Google's 'PatentShield' program ;)

Maybe Uber has realized that this guy is toxic and can't be trusted handling "their" tech? If he spent a decade stealing Google's tech, are they willing to risk him treating Uber the same way? Especially since Uber's epic level of sliminess would make it even easier for Levandowski to rationalize theft.

Re: Uber’s Anthony Levandowski out as Advanced Technologies lead amid legal fight

#10

Post by CalChris »

awalton wrote: post #4
kaladaraos wrote: post #3

Is there any reason not to be suspicious that Levandowski will just work on them unofficially?

Probably not going to matter either way - Google's got them dead to rights, will likely win a complete injunction against the program...

That and Uber pissed off the wrong people by stealing Levandowski after Google had bought his company. And that after Google had invested in Uber.
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