Kronenberger Rosenfeld Files Lawsuit Against Google and Waze for Copying Competitor’s Database

As seen in Law360 and Daily Journal, Kronenberger Rosenfeld filed a lawsuit on behalf of PhantomALERT, Inc., a GPS navigation technology company, against Waze, Inc. and its acquirer, Google, Inc. The lawsuit alleges that before it was acquired by Google, Waze copied PhantomALERT’s proprietary database without permission and incorporated that misappropriated data into Waze’s popular iPhone and Android navigation apps. The result was an unjustified and significant monetary gain for Waze, and now Google, which acquired Waze for over $1 billion in 2013.

The complaint alleges that PhantomALERT determined that Waze stole PhantomALERT’s Points of Interest database, in part, by observing the presence of fictitious seeded points of interest from its database in the Waze application—which is a common method of detecting copying in large datasets.

The lawsuit seeks monetary damages as well as an injunction against Waze and Google related to the Waze website and app, and to Google’s use of the Waze data in other applications.