Key Points
- A federal jury in Florida returned a verdict in a lawsuit filed by Aerosonic against eVTOL maker Joby Aviation.
- Parts supplier Aerosonic is a wholly-owned subsidiary of TransDigm Group.
- The jury found that Joby had violated an NDA it signed with Aerosonic, and misappropriated Aerosonic's trade secrets.
- Joby has asked the court to overturn the verdict, which awards Aerosonic $116.9 million in damages.
- Even if the verdict stands, the impact on Joby will likely be minimal.
The world of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicle stocks has already been roiled by lawsuits and countersuits over the past year.
Today, one of those suits took a big step toward final resolution, as a federal jury returned a multimillion-dollar verdict in a dispute between avionics supplier Aerosonic, a TransDigm Group subsidiary, and eVTOL start-up Joby Aviation.
Here's what the dispute was about and how it will affect the company moving forward.
Image source: Joby Aviation.
A case about IP and NDAs
Florida-based Aerosonic was one of Joby's suppliers. After the companies signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) in September 2021, Aerosonic began supplying air data probes to Joby for use in Joby's test eVTOLs.
Air data probes are placed around an aircraft and measure air pressure. The data from the probes allows the aircraft's flight computers to calculate airspeed, altitude, and other essential flight conditions.
In March 2025, after Joby developed its own air data system, Aerosonic sued Joby, alleging that Joby had violated the NDA by using Aerosonic's proprietary designs and test data to develop its own probes. Joby filed a countersuit, alleging that Aerosonic had actually breached the NDA and that the probes Aerosonic sold to Joby were defective.
Today, the jury returned a verdict in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, awarding Aerosonic over $100 million.
Image source: The Motley Fool
A lopsided verdict
The jury had to decide whether Aerosonic had proven that 50 items of "Alleged Proprietary Information" and 50 "Alleged Trade Secrets" were valid pieces of its intellectual property and (for proprietary information) whether Joby had breached the NDA with respect to it, or (for trade secrets) whether Joby had misappropriated it.
The jury agreed that Aerosonic had proven all of its claims by a preponderance of the evidence. It rejected all 8 of Joby's affirmative defenses and counterclaims. Jurors also found that Joby's misappropriation of trade secrets was "willful and malicious," which incurred additional "exemplary damages" beyond the usual "compensatory damages."
The jury awarded Aerosonic $68.6 million for the NDA breach, $29.9 million to cover Aerosonic's losses and Joby's gains from the misappropriation of trade secrets, and $18.3 million in exemplary damages.
It adds up to about $116.9 million in total.
The verdict still needs to be finalized, and a Joby spokesperson has vowed the company will "vigorously pursue all available post-trial and appellate remedies."
But if the verdict stands, what impact will it have on Joby?
The impact sounds big, but will likely be small
No company likes to pay $116.9 million, especially a small company like Joby.
There might be some reputational damage to Joby among its current parts suppliers, but that's tough to quantify. The big question is how it will affect Joby's finances.
Joby currently has about $2.3 billion in cash and short-term investments on its balance sheet. It could pay $116.9 million out of that pile without even breaking a sweat.
Joby already has significant cash burn. Over the last year, it has reported a negative free cash flow rate of $743.3 million.
At that rate of cash burn, Joby would go through its $2.3 billion cash hoard in about 37 months. With this verdict factored in, that would change to... 35 months.
In other words, because the only penalty in this verdict is financial, the overall impact on Joby is likely to be minimal.
