Uber's bid to move Waymo court fight to arbitration denied by appeals court

(Reuters) - Uber Technology Inc’s attempt to move its high-profile trade secrets dispute with Alphabet Inc’s self-driving car unit Waymo to private arbitration was denied again by a U.S. federal appeals court on Wednesday.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said the closely watched case should continue in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.

Waymo sued Uber [UBER.UL] in February, alleging theft of its proprietary information relating to its self-driving car program.

Waymo’s lawsuit accuses Anthony Levandowski, a former Waymo executive, of taking confidential documents with him when he left to create a startup later acquired by Uber. Levandowski is not a defendant in the case.

Uber denies these claims.

The ride-hailing company responded that Waymo’s claims should be arbitrated because Levandowski had an arbitration clause in his employment agreement with Waymo.

The Federal Circuit denied that argument in Wednesday’s ruling, affirming a lower court decision.

The court also upheld a ruling that Uber must produce a due diligence report on Levandowski’s startup prepared during its acquisition talks with the company in 2016.

Waymo has sought the document for months, saying it could shed light on what Uber executives knew of Levandowski’s actions.

Uber had refused to turn the document over, citing attorney-client privilege.