Faraday Future sues EVelozcity for trade secret misappropriation

Big trade secret case out of the Central District of California. Faraday Future, a manufacturer of futuristic (literally and figuratively) electric cars, has suffered a spate of bad news lately.

There was Verge’s article, Burn Out: Inside Faraday Future’s Financial House of Cards. And there was Jalopnik’s “Accidental Billionaire”: How the Outlandish Ambition of Faraday Future’s Financier Brought the Startup to its Knees.

Now Faraday Future is in the news for suing an upstart rival filled with its former execs, EVelozcity, for trade secret misappropriation under the Defend Trade Secrets Act.

It’s easy to brush aside some of the complaint’s allegations. Like the broad claim of “[t]he host of trade secrets that [Faraday Future] has developed since 2014 would be highly valuable to any competitor in the electric vehicle space, especially since the market for AI electric vehicles is brand new and evolving quickly.” It’s great marketing material, sure. But it doesn’t add much legally.

Other allegations, though, have more teeth. Most notably: the claim that one now-former Faraday Future employee “copied onto a portable USB drive and/or a personal Google drive substantial amounts of FF trade secret information that included at least: plans for parts in vehicles, material specs, cost lists, financial spreadsheets, information about FF’s proprietary VPA system, confidential power train information, [and] vendor information . . . .”

Like Uber v. Waymo, this should be a case to watch.