Following the high-profile trade secrets litigation and settlement between Waymo and Uber in February 2018, covered previously in this blog, a defamation claim was filed by four Uber employees against Uber’s former global intelligence manager, Richard Jacobs. The case alleges that Jacobs defamed the four plaintiffs by accusing them — initially in an intra-office email, which was later broadcast to the world as part of the now-settled Waymo v. Uber case — of wiretapping, trade secret theft, and hacking.
The plaintiffs filed a motion earlier this month asking the federal judge hearing the matter to relate the defamation suit to the initial trade secret case, arguing that Jacobs’ statements received substantial attention in that matter. Jacobs responded by filing an opposition to this motion last week, arguing that there was no reason for the plaintiffs to have waited several months to file the motion, that the cases involve different facts, and that relating the cases would unnecessarily complicate matters. Whether the court agrees remains to be seen.