Uber CEO Travis Kalanick with Anthony Levandowski. Associated Press Uber has followed through on its threat to take its court case over self-driving cars into arbitration.

The ride-hailing company wants a "declaratory judgment that Waymo's claims" that Uber "misappropriated trade secrets and violated UCL are meritless," according to a court filing that was unsealed Monday. UCL is an acronym for unfair-competition law.

In the filing, which was dated March 27, Uber's attorney, Arturo González, said he planned to initiate arbitration proceedings the next week. Uber confirmed that it did so last week in its case against Waymo, the self-driving-car company owned by Google's parent company, Alphabet.

Uber has contended that since Waymo's argument centers on the action of a former employee, Anthony Levandowski, it should be subject to the arbitration agreement that was part of his employment contract.

In February, Waymo sued Uber, claiming Levandowski stole vital lidar technology shortly before leaving to start his self-driving-vehicle company, which Uber later acquired.

The fight over trade secrets is shaping up to be one of the most significant and closely watched battles in Silicon Valley in years, pitting two of the world's most powerful companies — and former partners — against each other.

If it were compelled into arbitration, the case would be solved by an arbitrator, not in public courts.