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Waymo Clarifies It Actually Wants $1.8 Billion From Uber (techcrunch.com)
Last week, a lawyer for Uber said Waymo was seeking about $2.6 billion from the company for the alleged theft of one of several trade secrets in a lawsuit over self-driving cars. Over the weekend, Waymo filed a document with the court noting that the correct figure was actually $1.859 billion. TechCrunch reports: It's not clear why this seemingly important detail was left uncorrected for nearly a week. The filing also includes some additional clarification around the way in which the damages figure was calculated. Though Waymo is arguing that nine trade secrets were put in jeopardy by Anthony Levandowski, it is seeking a maximum of $1.8 billion in damages. That figure is the value that Waymo is attributing to a single trade secret -- trade secret 25. The other eight secrets are being individually valued at less than $1.8 billion. Consequently, Waymo is capping the damages at the value of its most valuable compromised trade secret. Waymo's attorneys note that the $1.8 billion figure was calculated based on an estimate of "Uber's unjust enrichment from Uber's trade secret misappropriation." Waymo continues that the damages are based on Uber's own profitability forecasts of deploying autonomous vehicles into its ridesharing business.
The problem with a patent is you need to tell everyone what you're doing, and how you've achieved it.
Then you're at the mercy of the system to make sure what you patented was novel enough to be afforded protection, and if knowing how you got it working one way makes it easier for people to achieve the same result using a different method, you've just given your competition a leg up.
Also - as Elon Musk said - when you're competition includes foreign governments, US Patents aren't much use.
There are legitimate reasons to rely on trade secrets.