Joby 被判违反 NDA 和使用商业机密，面临法律挑战

A federal jury last week found that Joby Aviation breached a mutual nondisclosure agreement (NDA) and willfully misappropriated trade secrets, marking the latest legal development in the world of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft manufacturing. The sector has seen several high-profile legal complaints in the past few years, with some still active.

According to a verdict filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, the jury awarded Aerosonic—which sold air data probes to Joby in 2022 after both companies signed the NDA in 2021—about $116.9 million. Aerosonic alleged that Joby used its trade secrets and proprietary information to design and build its own probes following the sale.

“Joby independently developed its air data system through years of its own engineering and manufacturing work, and we stand firmly behind the integrity of that work and our conduct,“ Joby said in a statement shared with FLYING. “We take the protection of intellectual property, both our own and that of others, extremely seriously.“

The company added that the jury’s verdict is not a final judgment. It said it asked the court to overturn the verdict and intends to ”vigorously pursue all available post-trial and appellate remedies.”

Joby is developing eVTOL air taxis designed to whisk passengers over urban areas in minutes and is pursuing FAA type certification for its flagship S4. Per an August 2025 court order, Joby sought Aerosonic’s probes to measure “pitot pressure, static pressure, angle of attack, and angle of sideslip” for its “flight-test aircraft and eventual mass-production aircraft.”

According to Aerosonic, Joby had not attempted to design its own air data probes prior to purchasing its products, but it began doing so after, using designs and data that were considered proprietary under the firms’ NDA. Those allegedly included engineering drawings, test procedures and reports, 3D models, and wind tunnel data, as well as documents marked confidential that Aerosonic shared with Joby prior to the agreement.

The NDA applied to both future and past disclosures, Aerosonic alleged, and required Joby “not to copy or reverse engineer” any proprietary information.

Per the company’s complaint, Joby asked to purchase its intellectual property days after purchasing the probes, but it declined. Aerosonic said Joby then “continued to engage…about a potential business relationship and to solicit confidential, proprietary, and trade secret information about air data probes” before ceasing communication in 2023.

As evidence that Joby used its trade secrets, Aerosonic cited as evidence the manufacturer’s “remarkably short development time…despite no prior experience” while retaining access to confidential information. It also alleged Joby’s probes shared the “same distinctive geometric design” as its BB3 probe.

The similarity came to Aerosonic’s attention after Joby uploaded a YouTube video showing the geometric design, which it said was included in confidential disclosures but was not “readily observable when mounted on an aircraft.” It alleged Joby deleted portions of that video after it was brought to the company’s attention.

Aerosonic also claimed that Joby, in violation of the NDA, refused to return proprietary information after its repeated requests and continued using the company’s reports and data.

The firm alleged that Joby caused more than $100 million in damages because it “avoided years of research and development time and tens of millions of dollars of investment expenses.” Joby moved to dismiss the claims, but the court found Aerosonic’s allegations to be plausible and sufficiently pled.

Jurors awarded Aerosonic $68.6 million for Joby’s breach of the NDA, $29.9 million for its misappropriation of trade secrets, and $18.3 million in exemplary damages after finding the misappropriation to be willful and malicious. It also rejected all of Joby’s counterclaims, including that the probes it purchased from Aerosonic were defective.

Joby can still seek to have the verdict set aside or modified before pursuing an appeal, which it said it intends to do. The company said the verdict was “unsupported by the evidence and inconsistent with the law.”

At the same time, Joby is pursuing a trade secret case against Archer Aviation, its main eVTOL rival.

Joby, Archer, and the eVTOL Legal Landscape

Archer successfully motioned to intervene in the Joby-Aerosonic case, which Joby opposed, in order to protect its own trade secrets.

Aerosonic also sold probes to Archer, and the court had permitted Joby to seek discovery regarding that sale. Archer feared doing so would give its competitor confidential information, and the court granted its motion.

Joby and Archer have butted heads for years. Both are developing tilt-rotor eVTOL air taxis designed to fly up to four passengers on short, urban, zero-emission trips. The companies’ service plans overlap in markets such as New York, Los Angeles, and the Middle East. They are considered to be among the leaders in commercial eVTOL development, and each has operational and manufacturing agreements with marquee partners.

Joby’s trade secret case against Archer alleges that a former Joby employee downloaded sensitive files before joining Archer, then used them to help its rival undercut a deal with a real estate developer it had been courting. In September, a U.S. District Court judge threw out some of Joby’s complaints but allowed two to proceed. One involves Archer’s November 2025 lease of Hawthorne Airport shortly after hiring the former Joby employee, whom Joby alleges took files naming the airport.

The same judge rejected Archer’s countersuit alleging that Joby undertook a “years-long calculated scheme” to obscure ties to China—including mislabeling Chinese imports to circumvent tariffs—which it claimed netted Joby millions of dollars in government contracts. However, Archer’s patent infringement case against Joby at the U.S. International Trade Commission remains active and is pending investigation by an administrative law judge.

Also active is Archer’s patent infringement case against U.K. air taxi leader Vertical Aerospace, which accuses the latter of “copying” the design of Archer’s Midnight air taxi for its flagship Valo. Its complaint contends that patents for the “overall visual impression” of Midnight’s fuselage, wing, and V-tail design are “substantially the same” as Valo’s architecture. Vertical dismissed the complaint as “merely an attempt to distract from the challenges Archer is facing competing in the marketplace.”

Archer’s legal disputes within the eVTOL industry date to 2021, when Wisk Aero sued it for  “brazen theft” of trade secrets. Archer responded with a countersuit for $1 billion in damages, but the companies in 2023 settled on undisclosed terms and agreed to make Wisk the sole provider of autonomy technology for future Midnight variants.

Archer acquired Wisk, SkyGrid, and Insitu from Boeing in August in a deal that gave Boeing a significant stake in Archer.