Tesla has launched an aggressive lawsuit against electric truck start-up Rivian, claiming Rivian has stolen “Tesla’s trade secret, confidential, and proprietary information” by hiring ex-Tesla employees. According to Tesla, around 70 former employees have been poached by Rivian, some of whom took confidential documents with them.
Rivian could pose serious threat to Tesla, after investment from companies including Amazon and Ford has seen Rivian’s coffers grow to nearly $6 billion. It plans to release a series of electric pickup trucks, vans and SUVs, starting next year with the R1T pickup and R1S SUV. Amazon has already pre-ordered 100,000 of Rivian’s delivery trucks.
In the complaint, filed with the Superior Court of California, Tesla alleges that one of its former employees “took highly sensitive trade secret compensation and bonus information for Tesla sales personnel for use at Rivian—including base pay rates, target bonuses, new hire equity awards, and incentive-based compensation numbers.” Another employee apparently took “manufacturing project management, controls specifications for manufacturing equipment, specifications regarding manufacturing robots, and manufacturing equipment requirements.”
As expected, Rivian has vehemently denied the claims. In a statement to Bloomberg News it said it requires any new staff to confirm “that they have not, and will not, introduce former employers’ intellectual property into Rivian systems.”
The statement went on to say: “Rivian is made up of high-performing, mission-driven teams, and our business model and technology are based on many years of engineering, design and strategy development. This requires the contribution and know-how of thousands of employees from across the technology and automotive spaces.”
Keyword: Tesla sues electric truck rival Rivian