Uber's entire timetable towards a profitable business model depends on being (among the) first to market with a competitive A to B self-driving solution. If Waymo err.. Google err.. Alphabet gets the victory in District court, what becomes of one of the fastest growing businesses in the world?
IANAL. But Levandowski tried to "plead the Fifth" on testimony that he was not giving, on a case that he is not a party to. That should not fly, and did not. (Uber went along with it because it could help them in the case, and because they have some kind of obligation to try to defend Levandowski.)
Nobody seems to be contesting that Levandowski took a bunch of documents from Google (Waymo). If they want to, they can almost certainly make Uber choose between stopping working on self-driving cars, and firing or transferring Levandowski.
There's also the possibility that Levandowski goes to jail over this (I don't think his trying to plead the Fifth was just gamesmanship).
Bottom line: My best guess is that Uber is able to continue, but they have to throw Levandowski under the bus to do so. I don't know to what degree that will hurt them.
History is written by the winners. Court battles are dragged out by the losers.
My point is that, IMO, these kind of "IP" cases, never impede an actually successful business. And that if a business fails, and also has IP suits against it, it is for other business reasons that it failed.
I'm no IP lawyer ( that's probably helpful here ), but looking at Oracle vs Google, Samsung v Apple, IIRC, that actually more legitimate business didn't get impeded and just kept going.
My prediction is that if Uber falls it won't be IP suits that deal the fatal blow.
I think this is generally because courts move slower than the world, and both sides are, usually, "essentially matched" since they can both afford solid legal teams.
All this sort of leads to the conclusion that IP has mostly defensive, and capital benefits ( owning IP can deter people entering market or suing, and IP can add to value of transactions ), but it doesn't have the power to prevent other people using your invention ( as I think the intent of patents originally was, exclusive use ).
Nobody seems to be contesting that Levandowski took a bunch of documents from Google (Waymo). If they want to, they can almost certainly make Uber choose between stopping working on self-driving cars, and firing or transferring Levandowski.
There's also the possibility that Levandowski goes to jail over this (I don't think his trying to plead the Fifth was just gamesmanship).
Bottom line: My best guess is that Uber is able to continue, but they have to throw Levandowski under the bus to do so. I don't know to what degree that will hurt them.