Samsara, a trucking technology provider of ELD, telematics and safety cameras, has filed a complaint against fleet management provider Motive Technologies Inc. with the International Trade Commission. This follows Samsara’s recent filing of a federal lawsuit against Motive, seeking damages for its losses due to alleged intellectual property theft.
The complaint, filed under the Tariff Act of 1930, states that “Motive’s unlawful importation into the United States, sale for importation into the United States, and/or sale within the United States after importation of certain vehicle telematics, fleet management, and video-based safety systems, devices, and components thereof” infringe at least three Samsara patents.
Samsara asserts in the complaint that Motive is copying Samsara’s patented technology at all levels, including the overall structure of its system, the AI applications it offers to analyze customer data, the look and feel of the user interface for its telematics and safety solutions, and the IoT hardware devices (dash cameras, etc.) that collect the necessary data and enable all follow-on services.
“Motive chose to copy Samsara rather than invest the time and resources necessary to innovate,” Samsara asserts in the complaint, adding that Motive’s technology “was shamelessly copied from Samsara’s products. For years, Motive’s business plan has been simple, predictable, and endorsed by its senior management team: covertly steal Samsara’s innovations and present them falsely as Motive’s own.”
Samsara has requested the ITC issue an exclusion order and a cease-and-desist order to prevent Motive’s Vehicle Gateway and dashcam products from being imported into the United States and to prohibit Motive from selling, marketing, advertising or distributing those products.
In a responding statement, Motive claimed that Samsara has instead copied its technology.
"This legal maneuver is yet another attempt by Samsara to limit competition after failing to develop competitive AI technology," the statement reads. "More than 30 Samsara employees, including Samsara’s leadership team, have illegally used Motive’s product dating back to 2016 to copy its functionality. Motive will fight this anti-competitive behavior to the fullest extent."
