U.S federal prosecutors have decided not to charge an Archer Aviation employee, who rival eVTOL aircraft developer Wisk Aero alleged had stolen proprietary data. Wisk claimed that the data was then given to Archer after it hired him. Lawyers for Archer in an ongoing intellectual property civil lawsuit with Wisk today reported that the U.S. Attorney’s Office said it will not bring charges against Jing Xue, following an investigation by the FBI and the Department of Justice (DoJ) that started in March 2021.
According to Archer, the development will undermine “the foundational element” of Wisk’s trade secrets complaint and will favor its prospects in a trial that is not expected to start until early 2023. On July 22, 2021, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California denied Wisk’s motion for a preliminary injunction against Archer, triggering a full trial that will likely be heard before a jury.
