Joby Aviation makes “corporate espionage” claims in lawsuit against rival Archer

Gobi Aviation, the electric taxi developer, has sued Archer Aviation over allegations that its competitor used stolen trade secrets obtained from a former employee to interfere with its business.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in California Superior Court in Santa Cruz County, includes a series of allegations against Archer and George Kevork, a former Joby employee. Jobe alleges that Kevork, who was hired by Archer, stole trade secrets that Archer then used.

In the lawsuit, Jobe alleges that two days before announcing his resignation, Kevork “leaked a cache of high-value Jobe files containing confidential partnership terms, business and regulatory strategies, vertical airport infrastructure and airport access strategies, and technical information about Jobe’s aircraft and operations,” the complaint states.

Joby claims that Archer contacted one of its strategic partners and shared detailed information about the confidential terms of its exclusive agreement with Joby. According to the complaint, this information was known to Kevork and was contained in the files he allegedly stole.

“This is planned and deliberate corporate espionage,” the complaint states. “The conduct of Kevork and Archer left Jobe no choice but to take this action to protect Jobe’s valuable confidential and proprietary information.”

Archer was quick to respond.

“Jobi is heading into a baseless lawsuit in an attempt to distract from its shortcomings and slow down its main competitor,” Eric Lentell, chief legal and strategy officer at Archer, said in an emailed statement to TechCrunch.

“Joby’s case is completely baseless. The complaint, involving a non-technical employee who recently joined Archer in a business development role, does not identify a single specific trade secret, let alone any evidence of misappropriation,” Lintell said. “As Jobe knows, Archer has implemented aggressive employee on-boarding procedures to prevent him from doing the same thing he is accused of. Jobe improperly attempts to weaponize the legal system to achieve what he cannot achieve through fair competition, through bad faith litigation. Archer remains focused on building the future of advanced aviation in America.”

Both Archer Aviation and Joby are based in California and went public in 2021 through mergers with special purpose acquisition companies. Both are developing electric air taxis as well as pursuing defense applications for their technology.

For example, Archer signed an exclusive deal with arms manufacturer Anduril earlier this year to develop a hybrid gas-electric vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft for critical defense applications. Meanwhile, Jobe has signed an agreement with defense contractor L3Harris Technologies to “explore opportunities” to develop a gas turbine-powered hybrid VTOL aircraft that can fly autonomously.

The lawsuit sets the rivals on a more combative path.

Archer has been in the legal hot seat before, though that was eventually settled.

Wisk, now a subsidiary of Boeing, sued Archer in 2021 for “brazen theft” of confidential information and intellectual property. These files included more than 50 trade secrets that Wesk claimed were stolen by a former employee who was later hired by Archer. The lawsuit continued for two years before the two parties settled the legal dispute and agreed to cooperate.