Tesla is Suing Rivian and Says Company has Stolen Secrets and Poached Employees

Electric vehicle maker Tesla is suing American automaker and automotive technology company. Rivian for allegedly stealing secrets and poaching employees.

In a filing this week, Tesla has said that its rival stole trade secrets and poached employees. The lawsuit also named four former Tesla employees, Tami Pascale, Kim Wong, Jessica Siron and Carrington Bradley.

“Rivian is knowingly encouraging the misappropriation of Tesla’s trade secret, confidential, and proprietary information by Tesla employees that Rivian hires,” the company said in a lawsuit.

“In about the past week, Tesla has discovered disturbing pattern of employees who are departing for Rivian surreptitiously stealing Tesla trade secret, confidential, and proprietary information — information that is especially useful for startup electric vehicle company. And Rivian encourages those thefts even though Rivian is well aware of Tesla employees’ confidentiality obligations,” Tesla said in the filing.

Rivian, who employs roughly 2,300 people, has denied the allegatios. Tesla claims 178 of those are former Tesla employees.

“This suit’s allegations are baseless and run counter to Rivian’s culture, ethos and corporate policies,” a Rivian spokesperson told CNBC. “Upon joining Rivian, we require all employees to confirm that they have not, and will not, introduce former employers’ intellectual property into Rivian systems.

It was in 2017 that Tesla also filed a similar suit against a former employee involved with Tesla’s automated driving program who had left the company to co-found Aurora, an autonomous driving start-up. Aurora eventually settled.

Disclaimer: We have no position in Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) and have not been compensated for this article.