US judge dismisses Archer's claims against Joby over alleged China ties

A US federal judge dismissed Archer Aviation's claims that it lost government business because rival Joby Aviation concealed connections to China in its dealings with the US government. The order came on 29 September from Judge Susan van Keulen of the US District Court for the Northern District of California. She called Archer's allegations vague and speculative and found they did not establish that Joby misled or withheld information from the US Air Force. The court also held that Archer's claims fail under Noerr-Pennington, a doctrine shielding companies' petitions to government from antitrust liability.

The ruling is the latest step in a dispute between two of the largest developers of electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft. Each has sued the other. Joby alleges that Archer and an employee, Richard Kivork, took and misused trade secrets, and the judge let several of those claims stand.

Archer's counterclaim argued it was economically harmed after missing out on US government contracts that Joby won. Archer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Joby said it was pleased the court dismissed Archer's claims for a second time and with prejudice, and that the court found the allegations lacked a sufficient factual basis. Joby said it remains focused on protecting its intellectual property and on pursuing its own claims against Archer and Kivork, which it said are continuing.