Judge Allows Nikola's (NKLA) $2B Patent Lawsuit Against Tesla (TSLA) to Proceed

A judge announced Tuesday that he is letting a three-year-old $2 billion patent lawsuit, filed by Nikola (NASDAQ: NKLA) against Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA), to continue. Judge James Donato shelved the suit earlier this month after the two companies stopped responding to the court’s orders. Judge Donato gave Nikola an October 6th deadline to argue why the case should be continued, which the startup met. However, the company may not have been totally convincing.

“Nikola’s ostensible reasons for not responding to the Court’s orders are not particularly compelling,” the judge said in Tuesday’s order. “The case will not be dismissed at this time for failure to prosecute, but that may change if Nikola does not move this case forward to resolution in an efficient and timely manner.”

Tesla has said since the start that there is “no merit” to the claims. On April 20th, 2020, Nikola founder Trevor Milton tweeted that Tesla lost a bid with the US Patent and Trademark Office to invalidate some patents. “Two billion dollar lawsuit moving forward. We will defend our company’s IP no matter who it is,” he wrote.

Since then, Nikola has gone public, and Milton was accused of lying to investors. He eventually stepped down from running the company and, this year, was arrested and indicted on multiple counts of fraud.

By Michael Elkins | [email protected]

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