Electric Air Taxis Face Legal Turbulence as Court Battles Slow Takeoff

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Last year, two of the biggest US air taxi startups, Joby Aviation and Archer Aviation, took their rivalry to court. Joby alleged that Archer engaged in corporate espionage, while Archer countered by accusing Joby of hiding connections to China. Then, in February, Archer opened a new legal front against another competitor, Vertical Aerospace, claiming the company copied its “Midnight” aircraft design for Vertical’s own “Valo” model.

The latest clashes come less than two years after Archer appeared to put a separate dispute behind it with Boeing-backed Wisk Aero over alleged trade-secret theft. That case, however, resurfaced after Wisk asked the court to intervene and enforce the settlement terms.

The legal fighting arrives at a sensitive moment for the air taxi sector, which is working to convince regulators, investors, and the public that electric aircraft can become a practical new layer of city transportation — moving passengers across urban areas without the noise and emissions associated with conventional helicopters.

But the industry’s trajectory has been anything but smooth. Shares of air taxi companies have fallen sharply in recent years as certification targets continue to slip. Cash reserves are tightening while development schedules stretch longer. And investors, already uncertain about whether these companies can clear regulatory hurdles, are becoming increasingly concerned about the mounting expense of prolonged litigation.

As startups compete for control of a new aviation market that could be worth billions, fights over intellectual property, employee talent, and competitive advantage are fueling a wave of lawsuits. That legal pressure could add yet another obstacle for an electric air taxi industry still trying to prove it can truly take off.

Joby and Archer, based roughly an hour apart in the San Francisco Bay Area, have emerged as fierce competitors in the race to become the “Uber of the sky.” Over the past year, their rivalry has spilled into a growing stack of lawsuits and countersuits that challenge each other’s technology, business practices, and progress.

In a lawsuit filed in November 2025, Joby accused Archer of corporate espionage tied to a former Joby employee who later joined Archer. Joby claims the employee took technical materials and stakeholder communications and supplied them to his new company. “Archer brazenly used that stolen information,” Joby alleges in the complaint.

In March of this year, Archer clapped back, accusing Joby of defrauding the US government by misclassifying components imported from China. The plan, Archer claimed, included classifying China aircraft parts as consumer goods such as “hair clips” and “socks.” The countersuit appears to have paid off; a month later, the International Trade Commission opened an investigation into Joby’s ties to China, examining whether the company violated tariff or patent law. The ongoing investigation could delay Joby’s plans to launch an air taxi service by 2028.

But Joby isn’t the only rival in Archer’s crosshairs. In February, Archer filed a lawsuit against UK-based Vertical Aerospace, accusing it of ripping off its eVTOL designs. Archer’s Midnight and Vertical’s Valo are both four-passenger aircraft with electric motors and tilt-rotor propellers designed for vertical takeoff and landing. Both have a cruising speed of 150mph and a maximum range of 100 miles.

“It’s obvious that Vertical’s Valo aircraft mimics many of Midnight’s most distinctive design features,” Eric Lentell, Archer’s chief strategy and legal officer, said in a statement to The Verge. Vertical Aerospace spokesperson Justin Bates said that Archer’s claims were “without merit” and a “distraction” from the company’s challenges in the market.

No air taxi company has fully completed the rigorous FAA type certification required to fly passengers commercially in the US. But both Joby and Archer claim they are close.

Joby is widely considered to be the front-runner, having progressed through all four stages of the type certification process. The company produces around one aircraft a month and is currently working on a production version that will undergo the FAA’s certification process. In April, Joby demonstrated one of its aircraft flying from JFK Airport to Lower Manhattan as a preview of future air taxi routes. The company plans on launching its first passenger service in Dubai, where certification requirements are less strict than in the US, later this year.

Archer, meanwhile, is still working on a pre-production model and has progressed through three of the four type certification stages. The company has said it will be ready for passengers in time for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

But investors have been less than impressed with the companies’ claims of being on the cusp of commercial viability. At the time of publication, Joby’s stock has shed almost 35 percent of its value since the beginning of the year, while Archer’s stock has plummeted nearly 33 percent.

There’s so much at stake, it’s no surprise these companies are using their legal teams to blast each other out of the sky. The talent pool is small, so disputes over trade secrets and corporate espionage were in some ways inevitable. And because FAA certification is an absolute necessity for a future air taxi service, regulatory compliance became another line of attack.

But these lawsuits are also sending a message to investors, to regulators, and to potential future passengers: Buckle up, because there’s turbulence ahead.