Nikola and Tesla jointly filed a notice of voluntary dismissal of the lawsuit to the U.S. Northern District of California on Wednesday, and Nikola formally dropped the patent lawsuit against Tesla, which involved the design of the Tesla electric truck SEMI.
In 2018, the hydrogen truck startup Nikola sued Tesla, claiming its Semi was a counterfeit of Nikola's 2016 truck design, which was developed based on their own patents. The company has been granted about three design patents covering minor design features previously used in other 8 truck categories and is demanding $2 billion in damages from Tesla.
Over the past year and a half, however, the truck startup and its former CEO, Trevor Milton, have faced many challenges, many of which have shown they have been unable to deliver on their promises to investors, and Milton himself has faced three counts of criminal fraud due to misrepresentations about the company.
In addition, in September 2020, Tesla responded to the case, accusing Nikola of building his own truck based on designer Adriano Mudri's 2010 concept. Tesla wrote in its legal filing: "Adriano Mudri was the designer of the Road Runner concept truck, which participated in the 2010 Michelin Design Challenge and was selected to be exhibited at the 2010 North American International Auto Show. ”
Tesla also noted that some of Nikola's design elements, including circular windshields and overall streamlined shapes, have long been present on other trucks. And last year's influx of a large number of problems had a significant impact on Nikola, which also prompted the startup to decide to abandon its claim against Tesla, even if the probability of Tesla winning the lawsuit is high, Tesla also gave up the counterclaim, and Tesla can also shift the focus of the problem to the production and delivery of semi electric trucks as soon as possible.