Uber finds one allegedly stolen Waymo file on an employee’s personal device
Judge Alsup:<p>&quot;If your guy is involved in criminal activity and has to have criminal lawyers of the caliber of these two gentlemen, who are the best, well, okay they got the best. But it’s a problem I can’t solve for you. And if you think I’m going to cut you some slack because you’re looking at—your guy is looking at jail time, no. They [Waymo] are going to get the benefit of their record. And if you don’t deny it—if all you do is come in and say, “We looked for the documents and can’t find them,” then the conclusion is they got a record that shows Mr. Levandowski took it, and maybe still has it. And he’s—he’s still working for your company. And maybe that means preliminary injunction time. Maybe. I don’t know. I’m not there yet. But I’m telling you, you’re looking at a serious problem.&quot;<p>...<p>&quot;Well, why did he take [them] then?&quot;. &quot;He downloaded 14,000 files, he wiped clean the computer, and he took [them] with him. That&#x27;s the record. He’s not denying it. You&#x27;re not denying it. No one on your side is denying he has the 14,000 files. Maybe you will. But if it&#x27;s going to be denied, how can he take the 5th Amendment? This is an extraordinary case. In 42 years, I&#x27;ve never seen a record this strong. You are up against it. And you are looking at a preliminary injunction, even if what you tell me is true.&quot;<p>Uber is having a very bad day when a Federal judge starts talking like that.  A preliminary injunction looks likely.  If Uber can&#x27;t find anything, this goes against them. Nobody has denied that Levandowski copied the files. Uber paid $600 million for Otto&#x27;s technology and people.  Even if the files didn&#x27;t make it to Uber&#x27;s computers, Waymo can probably get a preliminary injunction shutting down much of Uber&#x27;s self-driving effort. Then Uber gets to argue that their technology is different from Waymo&#x27;s. It&#x27;s going to be hard to argue independent invention when all the people are from Google&#x27;s project.