Electric air taxi developer Joby Aviation is suing Archer Aviation. The lawsuit alleges that Archer used stolen trade secrets obtained from a former Joby employee to interfere with its business.
The case was filed in the Superior Court of California in Santa Cruz County. It makes a series of allegations against Archer and a former Joby employee named George Kivork. Joby claims that Kivork, who was later hired by Archer, stole valuable trade secrets.
According to the complaint, two days before announcing his resignation, Kivork took a collection of important Joby files. These files reportedly contained confidential partnership terms, business and regulatory strategies, infrastructure plans for vertiports and airport access, and technical information about Joby’s aircraft and operations.
Joby further alleges that Archer then approached one of Joby’s strategic partners. Archer is accused of sharing detailed information about the confidential terms of Joby’s exclusive agreement with that partner. Joby asserts this information was known to Kivork and was contained in the files he allegedly took. The complaint describes the situation as corporate espionage that was planned and premeditated.
Archer responded quickly to the lawsuit. Eric Lentell, Archer’s chief legal and strategy officer, stated that Joby is turning to baseless litigation to distract from its own shortcomings and slow down a leading competitor. He said the case is entirely without merit, noting that the complaint involves a non-technical employee in a business development role and does not identify a single specific trade secret. Lentell stated that Archer has rigorous employee onboarding procedures to prevent such issues and accused Joby of attempting to weaponize the legal system.
Both Archer Aviation and Joby are based in California and became public companies in 2021. Both companies are developing electric air taxis and are also pursuing defense applications for their technology.
For example, Archer signed an exclusive deal with weapons manufacturer Anduril earlier this year. The partnership aims to jointly develop a hybrid gas-and-electric-powered vertical take-off and landing aircraft for critical defense applications.
Meanwhile, Joby signed an agreement with defense contractor L3Harris Technologies to explore opportunities for developing a gas-turbine hybrid VTOL aircraft capable of flying autonomously.
This lawsuit places the two competitors on a more combative path. Archer has faced legal challenges before. Wisk, now a subsidiary of Boeing, sued Archer in 2021 for what it called brazen theft of confidential information and intellectual property. That lawsuit alleged a former employee took over fifty trade secrets to Archer. That legal dispute continued for two years before the parties settled and agreed to collaborate.