Uber to engineer: Return stolen docs, or swear you didn’t steal them

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, left, and Anthony Levandowski, co-founder of Otto, pose for a photo in the lobby of Uber headquarters, Thursday, Aug. 18, 2016, in San Francisco.

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, left, and Anthony Levandowski, co-founder of Otto, pose for a photo in the lobby of Uber headquarters, Thursday, Aug. 18, 2016, in San Francisco. Photo: Tony Avelar, Associated Press Photo: Tony Avelar, Associated Press Image 1 of / 7 Caption Close Uber to engineer: Return stolen docs, or swear you didn’t steal them 1 / 7 Back to Gallery

In a bluntly worded letter, Uber ordered a star engineer to return any purloined Waymo documents, or deny under oath having stolen them, and threatened to fire him if he doesn’t comply.

Uber’s letter to Anthony Levandowski, written Monday by Uber general counsel Salle Yoo and made public late Thursday, is the latest salvo in the case of Waymo vs. Uber.

Waymo, the self-driving car unit of Google parent company Alphabet, says its former employee Levandowski illegally downloaded 14,000 documents and brought that stolen technology to Uber to help fast-track its race to develop robot vehicles. In February, Waymo sued Uber and its subsidiary Otto, a startup founded by Levandowski, alleging unfair competition, patent infringement and the theft of trade secrets.

Uber wrote the four-page letter under a court order. U.S. District Judge William Alsup, in a ruling released Monday, said Waymo had “compelling evidence” of Levandowski’s alleged downloading, and ordered Uber to return the documents to Waymo by May 31. Alsup also barred Levandowski from working on a form of laser sensor called lidar, the technology that Waymo claims Uber copied.

Uber, which denies wrongdoing, has testified that it scoured its computers but has been unable to locate any of the materials.

“While we have respected your personal liberties, it is our view that the court’s order requires us to make these demands of you,” Yoo wrote to Levandowski. “We insist that you do everything in your power to assist us in complying with the order.” She gave him until Wednesday to comply.

Citing his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination, Levandowski has refused to testify in the case. He has extended those rights to his personal laptop, leading to Alsup’s speculation in court that the stolen documents might be on that device.

Uber addressed that issue. “This letter requires you to turn over information wherever located, including but not limited to, your personal devices, and to waive any Fifth Amendment protection you may have,” Yoo wrote.

The letter sets up a showdown between Uber and the man whose company it paid $680 million to acquire — a man who is a close confidant of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick.

“I feel like we’re brothers from another mother,” Kalanick said of Levandowski, according to Bloomberg, which reported the CEO courting the engineer during long evening walks in San Francisco from SoMa to the Golden Gate Bridge.

When Uber bought Otto, Kalanick put Levandowski in charge of Uber’s self-driving research, an effort the CEO considers crucial to his company’s future. As the lawsuit heated up this month, Uber said it demoted Levandowski to be the No. 2 person on that team and recused him from work on lidar, as the judge later ordered.

Levandowski’s attorneys filed a motion Thursday asking Alsup to modify his order to protect their client’s Fifth Amendment rights. The judge overstepped his bounds by setting up a “coercive choice” for the engineer between “preserving his livelihood and preserving his constitutional rights,” they argued.

The stakes for Levandowski — and Uber — are high. Alsup has referred the case to federal prosecutors for possible investigation of trade-secret theft. “Mr. Levandowski is faced with a clear ‘possibility of prosecution,’” his lawyers wrote.

If found guilty, Levandowski could face up to 10 years of jail time, said Christopher Broderick, an intellectual property lawyer in Los Angeles who is not involved in the case. If Uber is found complicit in the theft of trade secrets, it could face fines of up to three times the value of the stolen technology — a potentially staggering sum as autonomous vehicles are expected to become a multitrillion-dollar industry.

“It is difficult to gauge how much this could be because the value of self-driving car technology is so valuable it is difficult to quantify,” Broderick said in an email.

Waymo has alleged that Uber did not have Levandowski sign an agreement to cordon off technology acquired elsewhere before joining Uber, although other engineers typically did so.

Yoo’s letter spelled out that prohibition, although it comes many months after Levandowski joined Uber.

On Wednesday, Yoo assumed a new role as Uber chief legal officer, meaning she will no longer directly oversee Uber’s legal battles — such as the Waymo lawsuit.

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: csaid@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @csaid