(Source: Tesla)
Tesla and Rivian went to court where the former accused the woman of stealing battery technology by poaching Tesla employees.
It sounds like the two automakers are about to settle the case, which has been going on for 4 years.
In 2020, Tesla filed a lawsuit against Rivian for allegedly stealing trade secrets by hiring former Tesla employees and encouraging them to submit documents. Rivian dismissed the allegations.
When Tesla filed suit, it was not clear which trade secrets Tesla claimed Rivian had stolen. However, we noted that the employees listed in the lawsuit were two employers, an EHS manager, and a manager of Tesla's charging networks.
The automaker said the employees carried “documents containing sensitive trade secret, confidential, and proprietary engineering information” when they went to work for Rivian.
A year later, Tesla expanded the casespecifically stating that Rivian “it was stealing key technology for next-generation batteries.”
The companies first tried to negotiate in court but to no avail, the case was transferred to court last year.
A year later, we now learn that Tesla has informed the court that it expects to file a motion to dismiss the lawsuit after reaching a conditional settlement with Rivian. The company did not disclose compensation details (via Bloomberg):
Tesla did not disclose specific details about the settlement in the court filing, but told a California district judge that it expects the lawsuit to be dismissed on Dec. 24 after satisfactory completion of the terms.
Neither Tesla nor Rivian have commented on the reported deal.
While Tesla claims to open source its patents, we have previously noted that this is not the case. Tesla says it allows other companies to use its patented technology as long as they don't sue over the patents.
And in this particular case, Tesla claims that Rivian specifically hired workers to steal the technology. Again, Rivian denied that.
Electrek's Take
The terms are unknown, but in similar cases, they usually include things like a certain level of access to ensure that no proprietary technology is used or used.
The case is unclear, but based on the timeline and the alleged “next generation batteries”, Tesla may be talking about its 4680 battery cells, although those are cells. It can also be a structural battery pack.
Rivian is expected to use LG Energy Solutions' long-range 4695 battery in its next-generation vehicles.
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