In a potentially pivotal development in the legal battle between electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) airplane manufacturers Wisk and Archer, federal authorities investigating the underlying accusations of intellectual property theft have decided to end their inquiry into the case. That exit appears to signal vulnerability in Wisk’s charges that its rival misappropriated industrial secrets as the litigation heads to civil trial later this year.
The new twist in the prolonged and bitter legal row between the two eVTOL startups was revealed today by Archer. The San Francisco-based company said the US Attorney General’s Office decided last Friday not to bring charges against Archer engineer Jing Xue, who joined the company after working for Wisk. The suit Wisk filed last April claimed Xue had downloaded secret aircraft designs and other data before switching jobs, amounting to intellectual property theft that he was said to have shared with his new…
