Tesla Files Lawsuit Against Rivian For Allegedly Stealing Trade Secrets & Poaching Employees

Featured Image Credit: (Left) Tesla, (Right) Rivian

Tesla filed a lawsuit against Rivian, claiming that the latter stole trade secrets and poached employees. Rivian denies the claims and calls them “baseless,” emphasizing their respect for Tesla and its leadership in the EV market.

In the lawsuit, Tesla said it was Rivian’s “number one target from which to acquire information.” The EV automaker claimed that Rivian hired about 178 former Tesla employees. At least 70 of those former workers joined Rivian right after their employment with Tesla.

The global leader in the EV market also names four former staff members, who broke their NDAs and transferred “highly sensitive proprietary information” to their emails before starting their employment at Rivian. Tesla suspects there are at least two more culprits who have done the same.

Tesla clarified in the lawsuit that it had no issue with Rivian hiring its former employees, but draws the line when former staff break their NDAs and transfer sensitive trade secrets via their personal emails. It also claims that its former employees would search for new hires from Tesla’s current working staff to poach for Rivian.

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“Misappropriating Tesla’s competitively useful confidential information when leaving Tesla for a new employer is obviously wrong and risky. One would engage in that behavior only for an important benefit -- to use it to serve the competitive interests of a new employer,” said the complaint filed in state court of San Jose, California.

Rivian has disputed Tesla’s claims, and said it requires all new employees to confirm “that they have not, and will not, introduce former employers’ intellectual property into Rivian.”

Rivian released an official statement about the lawsuit via email, reported Bloomberg. “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,” wrote the company.

Tesla and Rivian will both be releasing an EV pickup in 2021 called the Cybertruck and R1T, respectively. 

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