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This tactic has been used against companies friends of mine have started. I've only seen it used by large 20+ year old 1970s/1980s publicly traded companies, ne
by vabmit 8y ago
This tactic has been used against companies friends of mine have started. I've only seen it used by large 20+ year old 1970s/1980s publicly traded companies, never someone like Tesla. The way it works is basically that you track where your ex-employees go after they leave. If they go to a competitor/disruptor start-up with out deep pockets, sue that competitor over trade secrets. It's nearly impossible to disprove in court. The competitor start-up exhausts its VC/Angel money on legal fees and goes bankrupt. Potential new customers are wary of using their tech because of the lawsuit. It's a lethal combination that ensures that you don't have to out innovate them. Stealing source code is one thing. I certainly understand suing over that. But, suing over stealing ideas about warehousing from a car company? Really? I don't see any justification for that other than a lack of faith in the ability of your own company to compete and innovate.
Full disclosure: I am shorting TSLA stock. I have worked on autonomous vehicles and do not believe Tesla's claims about their technology. I expect Tesla to go bankrupt sometime in the next few years. I'm even more convinced of this now that I see them using company-killer lawsuits against other competing start-ups.
- HeWhoLurksLate 8y agoIf you are a relatively new company, getting on stable ground, would you appreciate it if someone stole your IP and then proceeded to copy you, and get a huge boost past the part that nearly bankrupted you and left you homeless? That's not very fair to me, either. Full disclosure: I do agree that there is such a thing as going overboard, but when your top engineers get recruited to a new company doing the same exact thing and take their laptop with them, that's a bit much. Especially when they load up all their drives with documentation before they leave.
- Fricken 8y agoTesla has done this previously a meritless trade secrets theft case against Henry Fisker after he left the company, and later against Aurora innovation, a company cofounded by Sterling Anderson, a former director of Autopilot.
- xedeon 8y ago> I am shorting TSLA stock Then you are financially motivated to spew lies. Short sellers are probably the scummiest people on the planet, that will do anything to make a quick buck. Take this for example: http://www.cc.com/video-clips/rfag2r/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-exclusive---jim-cramer-extended-interview-pt--2 http://www.cc.com/video-clips/rfag2r/the-daily-show-with-jon... > I expect Tesla to go bankrupt sometime in the next few years. Short sellers have been saying that since 2008 because it serves their interest. Yet, here we are a full decade later.
- vabmit 8y agoThe stock isn't doing to well today or Friday. Maybe, just maybe, shitty people lie about financials and build shitty worthless companies.