Court Throws Out Archer's Counterclaims Against Joby for Good
A federal judge has dismissed Archer Aviation's counterclaims against Santa Cruz-based Joby Aviation a second time, this time with no option to refile. Joby's core trade-secret case keeps moving.
The legal fight between the two leading U.S. air-taxi developers just tilted further toward Joby.
On September 29, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled on dueling motions to dismiss in Joby Aero, Inc. v. Archer Aviation Inc. The court dismissed Archer's Lanham Act and California Unfair Competition Law counterclaims without leave to amend. Archer cannot bring them back in this case. Those counterclaims accused Joby of jockeying unfairly for government contracts and hiding its ties to China.
Joby's case was trimmed, but it survived. The court found Joby had adequately alleged that Archer and former Joby policy executive George Kivork misappropriated confidential information about leasing space at a Los Angeles airport. Some of Joby's other trade-secret and contract claims were dismissed, with permission to amend in some cases.
How We Got Here
Joby filed suit in November 2025 in Santa Cruz County Superior Court. The complaint alleged that Kivork, who led Joby's state and local policy team, took confidential files with him to San Jose-based Archer. Those files allegedly covered partnership terms, regulatory strategy, vertiport and airport-access plans, and aircraft specifications. According to Joby, a forensic investigation found that Kivork had sent dozens of company files to a personal email account. He had also changed permissions on hundreds of others so he could reach them after leaving.
The case centers on a real-estate developer. Joby alleges Archer used the leaked terms in an August 2025 bid to undercut Joby's exclusive agreement with that developer. Archer has denied wrongdoing from the start. Its chief legal officer has said Kivork brought no confidential Joby information to Archer.
In March 2026, Archer counterattacked. It accused Joby of concealing China-based sourcing and misclassifying imports to avoid tariffs. On June 5, Magistrate Judge Susan Van Keulen dismissed those counterclaims as "shotgun pleadings" and allowed Archer to try again. Archer then refiled its counterclaims and asked the court to toss the rest of Joby's suit. The September 29 ruling closes both doors.
Both Sides Claim a Win
Archer disclosed the ruling in an October 2 SEC filing and described it as a narrowing of the claims against it. That is accurate as far as it goes. Bloomberg Law framed it as a partial loss for Archer and Kivork, who failed to get the suit thrown out. The more consequential outcome may be the permanent dismissal of Archer's China-and-tariffs narrative from this courtroom.
Why It Matters Here
Joby is one of Santa Cruz County's signature companies. It has its headquarters on Encinal Street and its manufacturing operation in Marina, and it sits at the center of our region's advanced air mobility cluster. Vertiport sites, airport access, and city partnerships are now the next battleground for eVTOL operators. This case will help define how fiercely, and how fairly, that race gets run.
What comes next is discovery, where the evidence behind Joby's allegations will finally get tested.
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