Nov 20 (Reuters) - Electric air-taxi company Joby

Aviation ( JOBY ) has sued rival Archer Aviation ( ACHR ) in

California state court for allegedly stealing its trade secrets,

according to a complaint made public on Thursday.

Joby said in the lawsuit, filed on Wednesday in state court

in Santa Cruz, California, that Archer hired away a Joby

employee who took confidential information to Archer about its

business strategies, partnership terms and aircraft

specifications.

The employee, George Kivork, and spokespeople for Archer did

not immediately respond to requests for comment. A Joby

spokesperson declined to comment beyond the text of the

complaint.

Electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft firms like

Joby and Archer are racing to bring their vehicles to market,

aiming to meet a demand for faster, more sustainable urban

transportation.

Santa Cruz, California-based Joby is backed by Toyota ( TM )

and said in September that it plans to bring helicopter

and seaplane services to Uber's ( UBER ) ride-sharing app as

soon as next year.

Joby's lawsuit said Kivork, who led its state and local

policy team, left the company for San Jose, California-based

Archer after his last working day in July.

Joby alleged that Archer misused its trade secrets in an

August bid to undercut Joby's contract with a real-estate

developer. The developer told Joby that Archer knew confidential

details of the agreement and that Kivork must have shared them

with his new employer, according to the complaint.

The lawsuit said Joby learned from a forensic investigation

that Kivork had sent dozens of Joby's files to a personal email

account and changed security permissions for hundreds of others

so he could access them after he left.

Joby requested an unspecified amount of monetary damages and

a court order blocking Archer from misusing its trade secrets.

Archer settled separate trade-secret claims from Boeing's ( BA )

Wisk air-taxi subsidiary in 2023.