SAN FRANCISCO — The judge presiding over Alphabet Inc.’s case against Uber Technologies Inc. concerning self-driving cars on Thursday expressed a measure of doubt about whether Alphabet has defensible trade secret claims to technologies that it disclosed in patent filings or to highway safety regulators.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup of the Northern District of California said at a hearing there is an “interplay” between the trade secrets and the patents claimed by Waymo LLC, Alphabet’s autonomous car unit, in its suit against Uber. He asked—without demanding an immediate answer—how many of the company’s alleged trade secrets had already been revealed publicly during the patent process.
