This happens more than you would think. The mistake is probably compounded by two designs being almost the same and potentially the same engineers involved.

I'll bet the supplier searched for the engineer's name in his inbox and responded to a big email thread about the project with many people involved. The Otto engineer's old colleagues got the email instead of him.

They'll most likely have a case, but it's also unlikely that the supplier would be big enough to cover any damages in the high 9-10 figures, they'd just throw in the towel and go bankrupt.

Also an argument that "we stole stuff but you're the one who leaked it so you should be punished" won't play well with a jury.

>Presumably if Uber wins, it'd have a solid case against the supplier.

Can they really claim that the supplier damaged them by leaking trade secrets if the trade secrets aren't theirs?

> > Presumably if Uber wins, it'd have a solid case against the supplier.

> Can they really claim that the supplier damaged them by leaking trade secrets if the trade secrets aren't theirs?

If Uber wins, they are Uber's secrets.