What Is The Jacobs Letter? Evidence In Uber-Waymo Case Going Public

A memo written by former Uber security analyst Ric Jacobs, which has become a primary piece of evidence in the company's legal battle with autonomous car development company Waymo, is expected to be made public Dec. 13. The 37-page letter from Jacobs was addressed to Uber's deputy general counsel Angela Padilla and details the company's "marketplace analytics" team that, according to Jacobs, existed for the sole purpose of stealing trade secrets from competitors. The revelation of the letter--which was raised by the United States Department of Justice after the agency collected the document earlier this year as part of its own criminal investigation into Uber--raised questions about whether Uber knowingly withheld evidence that was relevant to its dispute with the Google subsidiary company Waymo. The two firms have been locked in a dispute since February, when Waymo sued the ride hailing service for allegedly stealing proprietary information pertaining to Waymo's autonomous vehicle technology. The case revolves around former Waymo employee Anthony Levandowski who, prior to departing from the company to found his own that would eventually be acquired by Uber, downloaded 14,000 "highly confidential and proprietary design files" from Waymo servers.