Joby Sues eVTOL Aircraft Rival Archer Over Trade Secrets

Joby Aviation has filed a lawsuit against rival eVTOL manufacturer Archer Aviation, alleging that the latter committed corporate espionage. The lawsuit, filed with the Superior Court of California in Santa Cruz last week, claims that a former Joby employee who joined Archer’s team in August misappropriated trade secrets and attempted to undercut an existing deal between Joby and a real estate developer. 

That employee, George Kivork, joined Archer in August as general manager for the Los Angeles region after serving as Joby’s head of U.S. state and local policy for nearly four years. Joby alleges that Kivork stole various confidential files before leaving, and that Archer used information in those files to come up with a more competitive deal to offer the developer.

In a Form 8-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on November 21, Archer said it “disputes the allegations in the complaint and intends to vigorously defend itself.” Archer co-founder and CEO Adam Goldstein also disputed the claims on social media. “Let me be clear, Archer has no deal with this developer. Joby’s accusations are fantasy,” Goldstein posted on X. 

“I get why Joby is frustrated,” he continued. “They’ve watched us win key deals time and time again. First it was Overair, then the Olympics, then the Lilium patents, and then the Hawthorne Airport. Suing us for a deal that we never even bid on is wild. I guess desperation really clouds judgment.”

Joby said it learned of Archer’s competing offer on August 5, about three weeks after Kivork’s resignation and several months after Joby and the developer had signed a binding agreement for an exclusive strategic partnership. The developer informed Joby that Archer “approached them with detailed knowledge about the confidential terms” of that partnership agreement. It also suggested that Kivork, who was involved in Joby’s initial negotiations, had disclosed that classified information, constituting a breach of contract. 

“Two days before announcing his resignation, Kivork exfiltrated a cache of highly valuable Joby files containing confidential partnership terms, business and regulatory strategies, infrastructure strategies for vertiports and airport access, and technical information about Joby’s aircraft and operations,” Joby alleged, adding that “Archer brazenly used that stolen information to interfere with Joby’s exclusive strategic partnership.”

“In addition to information about Joby’s agreement with the developer, the files Kivork stole also contained highly valuable trade secret information about Joby’s aircraft and operations, business and regulatory strategy, infrastructure strategy, and site analysis for potential vertiports and airport access. Kivork had no legitimate business purpose to download those files, much less email them to a personal account—particularly because Kivork doubtlessly knew he would be resigning just two days later.”

While Joby did not specifically name the real-estate partner in its complaint, it claims that an agreement signed on March 12 “granted Joby the exclusive right to design, build, and operate skydecks at certain of the developer’s properties”—presumably in California. 

Joby, based in Santa Cruz, and San Jose-based Archer both intend to launch commercial air taxi services in their home states, including the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles. Archer first announced its planned San Francisco vertiport network in June 2024, more than two years after Joby began planning for eVTOL services in the area. In its complaint, Joby states that it “first began cultivating the contractual relationship with the developer” in 2022, with discussions surrounding Joby’s potential use of its existing facilities and the possibility of developing vertiports at those facilities.”

Rivals in Race to Market

While Archer has scored several significant contracts and partnerships in the eVTOL sector, Joby appears to be ahead of its rival in terms of aircraft development and certification. Joby has already rolled out and powered up the first of several conforming prototypes dedicated to “for-credit” type inspection authorization testing with the FAA. 

Archer, meanwhile, has yet to produce a conforming prototype of its Midnight eVTOL aircraft. Although its first full-scale prototype—an uncrewed and remotely piloted model called “Midzero”—has demonstrated vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) capabilities, the second and only other flying prototype (“M001”) can only take off and land conventionally due to a design flaw with the propellers that the company is working to correct. 

Last week, both Joby and Archer exhibited their respective eVTOL designs at the Dubai Airshow. However, only Joby conducted live flight demonstrations there. Archer, which had previously announced plans to participate in the flying displays, only had a full-scale mockup at its booth, where the company showed videos of earlier flight tests.

The lawsuit against Archer comes just over two years after the company settled an intellectual property lawsuit with Wisk, a Boeing subsidiary developing an autonomous eVTOL air taxi. In that case, Wisk also alleged that one of its former employees had improperly taken confidential documents to Archer.