Joby Hit With $116.9 Million Trade-Secret Verdict

A federal jury in Tampa, Florida, has awarded aircraft component manufacturer Aerosonic nearly $116.9 million after finding Joby Aero breached a confidentiality agreement and willfully misappropriated trade secrets involving air data probes, according to the jury verdict entered Friday.

Probe Development Dispute

Aerosonic and Joby signed a nondisclosure agreement in 2021 before Aerosonic began supplying probes for Joby’s flight-test aircraft. According to a federal court order, Aerosonic provided Joby with engineering drawings, test procedures and reports, 3D models, wind-tunnel data and other proprietary information. Days after receiving its first probe in April 2022, Joby asked to purchase the intellectual property rights to Aerosonic’s air data probes, but Aerosonic refused.

“Instead, Joby continued to engage with Aerosonic about a potential business relationship and to solicit confidential, proprietary, and trade secret information about air data probes from Aerosonic,” Aerosonic alleged in its amended complaint.

The company claimed Joby had already decided to develop its own probes internally and later pointed to a distinctive interface geometry on Joby’s probe that it said matched a design contained in confidential Aerosonic engineering materials.

Aerosonic alleged Joby used its engineering information or reverse-engineered purchased probes while developing its own design. In allowing the case to proceed, the court said Aerosonic’s allegations supported an inference that Joby used its trade secrets through its engineering drawings and test data or through reverse-engineering the probes it purchased.

Jury Finds For Aerosonic

The jury found Joby liable for breach of the nondisclosure agreement and trade-secret misappropriation and determined the misappropriation was willful and malicious. Jurors awarded about $68.6 million for breach of the agreement, $29.9 million for trade-secret misappropriation and another $18.3 million in exemplary damages. The jury also rejected Joby’s counterclaims, including allegations that Aerosonic supplied defective probes.

Joby denied Aerosonic’s allegations and maintained that it developed its air data technology independently. The company can seek to have the verdict set aside or modified before pursuing an appeal.

“We strongly disagree with the jury’s verdict, which we believe is unsupported by the evidence and inconsistent with the law,” a Joby spokesperson told AVweb. “Joby independently developed its air data system through years of its own engineering and manufacturing work, and we stand firmly behind the integrity of that work and our conduct. We take the protection of intellectual property, both our own and that of others, extremely seriously. The jury’s verdict is not a final judgment. We have asked the Court to overturn the verdict and intend to vigorously pursue all available post-trial and appellate remedies.”

The verdict comes as Joby pursues its own trade-secret case against eVTOL competitor Archer Aviation and former Joby employee George Kivork. Joby alleges Kivork took confidential company information before joining Archer, including material related to aircraft and business development.