The air taxi industry has a problem that no amount of vertical takeoff technology can solve: its two biggest players are spending as much time in courtrooms as they are in test flights.
Joby Aviation filed a trade secrets lawsuit against Archer Aviation on November 19, 2025, in California state court, alleging that a former executive named George Kivork walked out the door with confidential business information and handed it to Archer.
The counterattack
Archer didn’t take the accusation quietly. The company fired back with counterclaims in March 2026, flipping the narrative entirely.
Archer’s countersuit accused Joby of concealing ties to Chinese suppliers and misclassifying aircraft parts on imports. By June 2026, the courts had started sorting through the mess. Some of Archer’s claims survived judicial scrutiny while others were dismissed, leaving a legal battlefield that’s still very much active and unresolved.
