Joby Aviation alleges ‘corporate espionage’ in lawsuit filed against competitor.

Joby Aviation is suing a former employee and its rival company, alleging that the employee stole trade secrets to benefit the competitor.

According to the lawsuit filed Nov. 19 in Santa Cruz County Superior Court, George Kivork worked as Joby’s U.S. state and local policy lead for four years before he was recruited to work for San Jose-based Archer Aviation in the summer of 2025.

Both companies are developing electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, known as eVTOL, as they race to be the first to offer commercial air taxi service. Joby, which is based in Santa Cruz, has an expansive manufacturing facility at the Marina Municipal Airport.  

The lawsuit alleges that Kivork downloaded “highly valuable Joby files” to his personal devices two days before he announced his resignation in July 2025, calling such documents a “treasure chest of competitive secrets.”

Joby, the lawsuit continues, was working on an exclusive agreement with a real estate developer, who is not named in the lawsuit, to construct vertiports at the developer’s properties. The agreement was set to go public in August, but the developer’s representatives reported that Archer approached them about a business proposal that had similar, but “more lucrative” terms than Joby’s offer, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit claims that the developer stated it had learned of the terms through “former employee George.”

“This is corporate espionage, planned and premeditated,” the lawsuit states.

Eric Lentell, Archer’s chief legal officer, says Kivork did not bring any confidential information to Archer when he joined, noting that “Joby knows this, as we clearly communicated it to them.”

“Joby alleges we used their trade secrets to win a ‘deal’ with a developer but the reality is that Archer has no deal with this developer and Mr. Kivork did not bring any Joby confidential information to Archer,” Lentell says. “Joby knows these facts and is now improperly attempting to achieve through bad faith litigation what it cannot accomplish through fair competition. Archer remains focused on building the future of advanced aviation in America.”

A dollar amount in damages is not outlined in the lawsuit. Joby is asking the court to award “damages to the fullest extent available under applicable law,” as well as double them.

A case management conference is scheduled in Santa Cruz County Superior Court in March.