Tesla's Lawsuit Against Rivian Gets Greenlight From Judge

by Chris Teague

Published: July 24th, 2024

tesla s lawsuit against rivian gets greenlight from judge

A few years back, Tesla filed a lawsuit against Rivian, claiming that it stole trade secrets when it hired its ex-employees. The suit alleges that Rivian encouraged information thefts despite knowing that Tesla’s former workers were covered by confidentiality agreements. Things just got a bit more frustrating for Rivian, as a judge recently denied the automaker’s request to dismiss the suit.

Rivian denies Tesla’s claims, but the judge said, "Tesla’s evidence establishes that some Rivian employees were less thoroughly investigated and not disciplined.”

Despite that, Rivian said it had investigated the accusations and taken corrective actions. The judge’s decision opens the door for a trial to begin, but there is a hearing today before the ruling is finalized.

Proprietary tech and design work are some of the most valuable assets automakers have, especially those focused exclusively on electric vehicles. Tesla’s long-running, established business in the sector has given it a leg up on every other upstart automaker, so it’s not surprising to see it aggressively pursuing Rivian over what it perceives as theft.

That said, Rivian has praised Tesla for its charging network and has begun the process of enabling its vehicles to charge on Tesla Superchargers. The automaker is looking to accelerate its operations in late 2024 after stopping production at its Normal, Ill. factory for retooling and upgrades.

[Images: Rivian and Tesla]

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Chris Teague

Chris grew up in, under, and around cars, but took the long way around to becoming an automotive writer. After a career in technology consulting and a trip through business school, Chris began writing about the automotive industry as a way to reconnect with his passion and get behind the wheel of a new car every week. He focuses on taking complex industry stories and making them digestible by any reader. Just don’t expect him to stay away from high-mileage Porsches.

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3 of 8 comments

Zerofoo on Jul 25, 2024
Ah - yet another reason why Musk wants to leave California. NDAs are pretty much unenforceable in California for employees hired after Jan 1 2022.

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- David on Jul 25, 2024
  NDAs aren't non-compete agreements. AFAIK the California laws that just went into effect cover non-competes.
  
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David on Jul 25, 2024
A surprisingly large amount of time charges of violation of confidentiality agreements are proven with actual paperwork - the exec or engineer or whatever brought _actual_ documents with him to the new company. And sometime via emails where the employee in question actually promises information to the new employer. And having an actual suit proceed means that discovery can proceed, which can reveal this stuff. (In other situations - sales/mktg - it can be proven by showing customers new to the hiring company that were formerly customers of the suing company. In that case you depose the customer's execs who were responsible for shifting the account.) IOW - there's frequently a trail of records that can be followed.

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