Joby Aviation, a company developing electric air taxis, has filed a lawsuit against Archer Aviation, accusing the competitor of using proprietary information allegedly obtained from a former Joby employee to disrupt its operations.
The complaint, submitted Thursday to the Superior Court of California in Santa Cruz County, outlines several accusations against both Archer and George Kivork, who previously worked for Joby. Joby asserts that Kivork, after joining Archer, took confidential information that Archer then exploited.
Joby claims in its lawsuit that just two days before Kivork announced he was leaving, he “exfiltrated a cache of highly valuable Joby filings containing confidential partnerships terms, business and regulatory strategies, infrastructure strategies for vertiports and airport access, and technical information about Joby’s aircraft and operations,” according to the legal filing.
According to Joby, Archer later contacted one of Joby’s key partners and disclosed specific details about the exclusive agreement between the two companies. The lawsuit alleges that this information was accessible to Kivork and was among the documents he is accused of taking.
“This amounts to deliberate and calculated corporate espionage,” the complaint alleges. “The actions of Kivork and Archer have forced Joby to take legal steps to safeguard its sensitive and proprietary data.”
Archer responded swiftly to the allegations.
“Joby is resorting to unfounded legal action in an effort to divert attention from its own issues and hinder its primary competitor,” said Eric Lentell, Archer’s chief legal and strategy officer, in an emailed statement to TechCrunch.
“Joby’s lawsuit lacks any substance. The complaint concerns a non-technical employee who recently joined Archer in a business development capacity, and it fails to specify any particular trade secret or provide evidence of misappropriation,” Lentell stated. “Archer has robust onboarding protocols to prevent exactly these kinds of issues, as Joby is well aware. Joby is misusing the legal process to try to achieve through litigation what it cannot through fair competition. Archer remains committed to advancing the future of aviation in the United States.”
Both Archer Aviation and Joby are headquartered in California and became publicly traded in 2021 through mergers with special purpose acquisition companies. Each company is working on electric air taxi technology and exploring military applications for their innovations.
For example, earlier this year Archer entered into an exclusive partnership with defense company Anduril to co-develop a hybrid gas-electric VTOL aircraft for critical defense missions. At the same time, Joby partnered with L3Harris Technologies to “explore opportunities” for developing an autonomous gas-turbine hybrid VTOL aircraft.
This legal dispute has escalated the rivalry between the two companies.
Archer has previously faced legal challenges, though those were eventually resolved.
In 2021, Wisk, now a Boeing subsidiary, sued Archer for what it called the “brazen theft” of confidential data and intellectual property. The case involved more than 50 trade secrets that Wisk claimed were taken by a former employee who later joined Archer. After two years of litigation, the companies settled and agreed to work together.
