Re:Tesla sues former employees for allegedly stealing data, ...
by gamblor956 on Thursday March 21, 2019 @03:17PM
(#19456231)
Actually, now that I've been able to read the lawsuit, #2 and #3 are irrelevant.
Zoox isn't even to the point of making a product yet--its still in the prototyping stage, and Tesla accused it of stealing logistics IP related to supply chain management and storage. So Tesla can't show them of #1 (using the IP) because Zoox simply isn't in the position of being able to use the IP.
Re:Tesla sues former employees for allegedly stealing data, ...
by natch on Thursday March 21, 2019 @03:46PM
(#19456482)
Even in the planning and fund raising stages (for example) this kind of thing can be extremely valuable though. Just narrowing options and identifying strategies in advance without paying for research is huge. Your strict idea of what of “using” the IP means is pretty strained.
Rephrased your argument is:
1. Tesla has to show that Zoox is using or used the information.
2. The above point only likely if Tesla's logistics processes are valuable.
3. We know know that they are not valuable because Tesla has had trouble keeping its supply chain optimized.
I take the most amount of issue with #3, but also with #2. That they have trouble shipping whole cars on time does not prove to me that some sub-process of their manufacturing isn't well run or novel. Quite the opposite, really, since they're much more likely to have found alternate approaches since they were building lines from scratch and, thus, not tied to the old ways of solving things. That they're failing to ship on schedule is normal for operations at that size for the first time.
But even leaving aside #3, I still think #2 presumes a level of understanding at Zoox that I don't necessarily think is fair to assume. It may have taken Zoox time to realize that the Tesla approach was wasteful, but that doesn't excuse them from using stolen IP.