Uber Hit by a $1B Lawsuit for Stolen Ride-Hailing Idea

California entrepreneur Kevin Halpern, founder of Celluride Wireless filed a lawsuit against Uber and its co-founders; Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp. Halpern alleged that Uber and its executives stole his ride-hailing idea, claiming that he was its original inventor, the technology and intellectual property of which, based on his claim, Kalanick and Camp used to develop Uber, a company that specializes in on-demand ride-hailing using GPS and cell phone technology.

Halpern claims that he and Kalanick were business neighbors and he often engaged in business discussions with Kalanick and Camp since 2006. Halpern said that the two Uber founders took his idea for ride-hailing using cell phones that he outlined to them during their discussions, which was later used by the Uber founders when they formed their on-demand transport service company. Halpern developed the idea, which he called Celluride, in the early 2000s. He registered its website in 2003 and developed the prototype for the mobile phone app for ride-hailing in 2006, which was years before Uber was formed.

In the complaint, Halpern states that this idea and its eventual use caused him injury that is worth over one billion dollars and he believes he is entitled to receive a sizeable share of the company.

The idea, according to Halpern came about when he was growing up in New York, witnessing how customers were always frazzled looking for a ride while drivers of private cars were just waiting idly. According to him, he even thought of a great pricing model so that the supply and demand will be on an even level.

Uber Technologies, Inc., Raiser CA LLC (a subsidiary), Travis Kalanick, Garrett Camp and company investors First Round Capital, Founder Collective, Benchmark, Benchmark Capital, Bill Gurley, Scott Belsky and Bill Trenchard are all named in the lawsuit, which alleges that they knew that the trade secrets were unlawfully appropriated. Halpern even released a video on YouTube Thursday regarding the lawsuit.

This is not the first time that Halpern had filed a lawsuit against a company. He sued OfferPal Media founder, Anu Shukla in 2009.

Uber released a statement stating that Halpern’s claims were baseless and that they would defend against the lawsuit vigorously.

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