Uber Technologies Inc. agreed to settle a lawsuit with Alphabet Inc.\'s Waymo ov
ID: 419969 • Letter: U
Question
Uber Technologies Inc. agreed to settle a lawsuit with Alphabet Inc.'s Waymo over claims that Uber stole and inappropriately used trade secrets for self-driving vehicles, ending a year-old legal battle over the future of transportation that had riveted Silicon Valley. As part of the agreement, Uber promised not to use Waymo technology in its self-driving cars and to ensure no Waymo components were already in use. It also agreed to give Waymo a percentage of Uber's equity equal to about $245 million.
What benefit does a trade secret have over a patent? What specific standard would Waymo need to prove to succeed in a trademark infringement lawsuit? Why do you believe the parties agreed to those specific settlement terms and what factors might each party have considered in deciding on these settlement terms? Explain.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/09/technology/uber-waymo-lawsuit-driverless.html
Explanation / Answer
There are some benefits of trade secret over a patent , we can see as below ,
Patents could not protect the abstract ideas which is carried out by a computer. So that reason this make it difficult for certain sourse codes, manufacturing methods, customer lists, and recipes this name are the few examples af trade secrets to qualify for patent protection.
According to the Trade secret act, IP has ony two requirements to qualify for trade secret protection.these are the followings,
> You have try to put the reasonable efforts in place to maintain this secrecy.
> And another one is there is inherent economic value in keeping the deligate information unknown to the public.
these two basic requirement for the IP protections can be legally protected as a trade secret.
A Trade secret will remaim secret, disclosure does not require in order to receive any type of protection for your IP. There are some companies that are already getting benefits from the nondisclosure of trade secrets like Google, coca cola etc. Trade secrets do not expire in a set amount of time, the protection may continues as long as the information remains unknown to the public.
Specific standards Waymo need to prove to succeed in a trademark in fringement lawsuit
To prove a trademark infringement claim in court , Waymo must have to prove that it owns a valid mark , that it has its priority that is rights in the mark are senier to the defendant's and that Uber's mark is likely to cause confusion in the mind of consumers or clients about the sourse or sponsership of the goods or sevices offered under Uber's marks. And go through the comarison of the components used in Uber and Waymo.
- There are many factors which are considering for the settlement of the Uber and Waymo, Uber and Waymo are the bid brand name of the company, These both are very popular in the transportation field.
Both are have their own famous names so thay dont wanted to tarnish thier emage in the market.They benefitted from the settlement as they did not have to pay hefty sum towards filing of lawsuit.
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