Joby Hit With $116.9M Jury Verdict Over Trade Secret Dispute

A US jury has ordered electric air taxi developer Joby Aviation to pay aviation supplier Aerosonic close to $116.9 million, after concluding that the company broke a confidentiality agreement and improperly used trade secrets tied to air data probe technology.

Air data probes are a small but mission-critical piece of hardware on any aircraft, feeding vital information on airspeed, altitude and airflow to the flight control systems. For an eVTOL developer racing toward certification, that kind of sensor data is not a minor detail — it sits at the center of how safely and reliably the aircraft can operate. The jury’s finding that Joby misappropriated trade secrets in this area therefore lands as a serious legal blow, not just a financial one.

The verdict adds a fresh layer of legal pressure to the eVTOL sector, where a growing number of companies are simultaneously chasing certification, scaling manufacturing and defending their intellectual property in court. Litigation of this kind can be slow, costly and distracting, pulling engineering and management attention away from the development timelines that investors and regulators are watching closely.

Joby has not yet indicated how it plans to respond to the ruling, and it remains unclear whether the company will appeal or negotiate. What is clear is that the $116.9 million figure represents a meaningful sum for a business that is still pre-commercial in many respects, and the outcome could influence how rival eVTOL players structure their supplier agreements and confidentiality arrangements going forward.

The case also highlights a broader tension in advanced air mobility: as startups work with outside suppliers on specialized components, the lines around shared technical knowledge can become contested. With several eVTOL legal battles now unfolding in parallel, the industry may be entering a phase where courtroom outcomes matter as much as flight test milestones.