Vertical Aerospace has countersued Archer Aviation, claiming Archer’s Midnight air taxi infringes US Patent 12,747,027. The British company filed on 6 October in the federal court for the Eastern District of Texas, where Archer sued it in February.
Archer started this one. Its suit says Vertical’s Valo aircraft infringes several Archer patents covering Midnight, and asks the court to stop Vertical from infringing them. Vertical now asks the same court to stop Archer, and wants damages. Each company is trying to block the other’s aircraft.
A week earlier, Archer’s other fight moved. On 29 September a federal judge in San Jose narrowed Joby’s trade-secret suit against Archer and one of its employees. Some claims were dismissed and others go ahead. The same ruling threw out Archer’s counterclaims against Joby, under the federal Lanham Act and California’s unfair competition law, without leave to amend.
Joby sued in November 2025, after Archer hired a former Joby employee. Archer opened a third front in March. It asked the US International Trade Commission to stop Joby importing eVTOL aircraft, power systems and parts that Archer says infringe its patents.
Vertical has less room for a long fight. On 2 October it disclosed a New York Stock Exchange warning: its shares had averaged under $1 for 30 trading days. It has six months to bring the price back up.
The trade commission’s final decision on Joby’s imports is due on 14 September 2027.
