Alphabet drops all but one patent claim in its case against Uber

Alphabet's autonomous-car business, Waymo, has streamlined its lawsuit against Uber, dropping three claims of patent infringement entirely and focusing on a single case of alleged patent theft. The patents are not actually Waymo's main concern in this lawsuit -- the company claims Uber stole trade secrets relating to its self-driving LiDAR technology when it hired former Alphabet employees last year. Waymo says former self-driving leader Anthony Levandowski downloaded more than 14,000 confidential design files before leaving Alphabet and founding his own self-driving start-up, which was swiftly bought out by Uber. US District Judge William Alsup asked Waymo in June to streamline the patent side of its case from 121 claims of theft to fewer than 10, so as not to overwhelm a jury. He even suggested Waymo drop the patents from its case entirely.