Air taxi developer denies all wrongdoing and plans to ‘vigorously pursue’ post-trial remedies.
A federal jury in Florida has found that air taxi developer Joby Aviation breached a nondisclosure agreement with aviation equipment supplier Aerosonic and misappropriated its trade secrets, awarding Aerosonic $116.9 million in damages.
The 2 October verdict stems from a multi-year business relationship between the companies involving air-data probes for Joby’s electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, which it is developing for future passenger air-taxi services.
The air-data probes are external sensors mounted on an aircraft to measure critical flight information, such as air pressure, temperature, airflow and airspeed.
The jury awarded Aerosonic $116.9 million in damages: $68.6 million for Joby’s breach of a mutual nondisclosure agreement (MNDA), $29.9 million in compensatory damages for trade-secret misappropriation and $18.3 million in exemplary damages.
Joby denies wrongdoing.
“We strongly disagree with the jury’s verdict, which we believe is unsupported by the evidence and inconsistent with the law,” it tells FlightGlobal. “Joby independently developed its air data system through years of its own engineering and manufacturing work, and we stand firmly behind the integrity of that work and our conduct.”
“We take the protection of intellectual property, both our own and that of others, extremely seriously”, it adds.
The verdict remains subject to post-trial challenges, which Joby plans to pursue.
“We have asked the court to overturn the verdict and intend to vigorously pursue all available post-trial and appellate remedies,” Joby says.
Florida-based Aerosonic says Joby approached it about the possibility of supplying air-data equipment for its eVTOL aircraft in 2016.
By 2019, the business relationship progressed and Aerosonic was sending Joby engineering drawings and proprietary information regarding its air-data equipment. Aerosonic has said these drawings contained a proprietary notice “expressly prohibiting their disclosure or use”.
The companies continued discussions over the following years and in September 2021 signed the MNDA.
Among other restrictions, the agreement required both companies to hold the other’s proprietary information “in strict confidence” and stated that the companies could “not copy or reverse engineer any such proprietary information”.
In October 2021, a few weeks after the MNDA was signed, Joby placed an order for four Aerosonic air-data probes, which Aerosonic delivered in early April 2022. Aerosonic alleged that within days of its first probe delivery Joby asked to purchase the intellectual-property rights to the air-data probes. Aerosonic declined.
Aerosonic alleged that Joby decided that same month to begin developing its own air-data probes internally, court papers show. It claimed that Joby failed to disclose this decision and continued to engage in business conversations during which proprietary and trade-secret information was shared. Joby purchased additional air-data probes from Aerosonic during this time as well.
Aerosonic ended up supplying Joby with 10 SLZ8400-2L and SLZ8400-2R air-data probes in 2022 and 2023. According to Aerosonic, the companies maintained close contact until 2023, when Joby stopped communicating with Aerosonic and purchasing its equipment.
According to Aerosonic’s complaint, by March 2024 Joby had produced at least three of its own air-data probes for testing on one of its eVTOL aircraft. That would mean that Joby’s probes had become flight-suitable less than two years after it began developing them internally.
Aerosonic alleges that Joby must have used its proprietary information to do this, given the speed at which it developed these air-data probes.
Producing a flight-suitable air-data probe “from scratch and without prior experience would likely have taken a decade or more and millions of dollars of investment”, Aerosonic says. “Joby could not have designed, developed, calibrated, tested, qualified and manufactured a flight-suitable air data probe from scratch in less than two years without the head start it gained by using Aerosonic’s trade secrets and proprietary information.”
The dispute escalated in June 2024, when Aerosonic said it discovered a YouTube video tour of Joby’s production facility in which one of Joby’s air-data probes is seen detached from an aircraft. Aerosonic alleged the probe in the video had “the same distinctive geometric design as the interface for Aerosonic’s integrated air data probe – specifically, Aerosonic’s BB3 air data probe”.
“The geometric design of the interface of Aerosonic’s integrated air data probe is Aerosonic’s trade secret, is not readily observable when mounted on an aircraft, and was included in the engineering drawings and other confidential disclosures Aerosonic made to Joby,” Aerosonic’s complaint said.
Aerosonic sent Joby a cease-and-desist letter; it said the YouTube video was later edited to remove footage showing Joby’s air-data probe. In July 2024, Aerosonic demanded that Joby return all of its proprietary information.
Joby said certain information it had purchased was necessary for its ongoing aircraft testing and could not be returned.
In March 2025, Aerosonic sued Joby in federal court in Florida.
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