Tesla Accused Of Stealing Semi Design From Nikola Motor In $2B Patent Suit

A startup called Nikola Motor Company recently filed a $2 billion lawsuit against Tesla for patent infringement. Nikola’s claims specifically allege that the Tesla Semi design infringes upon a number of their own patents which were granted years ago. Nikola’s complaint includes a few photos of the Nikola One, the company’s hydrogen-electric truck that was initially unveiled in mid-2016. The suit adds that photos of the truck yielded more than 210,000 page views and that Elon Musk himself had seen the photos by May of 2016. The suit notes that Tesla at the time did not have any plans to develop a semi-truck and that the company just so happened to announce its plans in July of 2016.