Tesla and Rivian are currently duking it out in court over poached employees and intellectual property theft. The battle has been raging for more than a year, and there has been little to no progress. According to Bloomberg, a judge has forced both companies to move forward to settle the dispute once and for all.

The proceedings began in July 2020, with Tesla accusing Rivian of stealing its employees and trade secrets. Tesla noted four former employees in particular who might have provided Rivian with sensitive information. Tesla also said that Rivian hired 178 people who worked for Tesla, 70 of which came to Rivian directly from Tesla.

Rivian called it a smear campaign and stated that it has not and will not introduce any intellectual property its employees might have been exposed to into its cars.

This is not the first time Tesla has sued a disgruntled former employee who hacked its systems and shared valuable information. Earlier this year, Tesla also had to pay an ex-employee $137 million after losing a court battle. After creating a hostile working environment, the court ordered Tesla to pay that extensive sum to Owen Diaz.

The case recently appeared before Superior Court Judge Peter Manoukian. Manoukian gave Tesla 30 days to produce documents it claimes were stolen and handed over to Rivian.

The judge also gave Rivian 30 days to respond to Tesla's request for pretrial information sharing, an essential part of any trial. The court wants to know what steps Rivian took to investigate after the initial allegations were made by Tesla.

Both companies have accused the other of dragging the court case out, but this judgment should speed things up considerably.

Rivian also made the news for the wrong reasons recently. After filing an EPA application, the Rivian owner's forum noticed a few flaws in the R1T.