Boeing Must Face Suit Saying It Stole Rival Spacecraft Tech (1)

A federal judge allowed a lawsuit accusing Boeing Co. of “brazenly stealing” and producing counterfeit aerospace technology to move forward, while narrowing some of its claims.

Judge John H. Chun of the US District Court for the Western District of Washington denied parts of Boeing’s motion to dismiss Wilson Aerospace LLC’s suit, which claimed the air travel giant misappropriated and stole Wilson’s intellectual property to produce “mismatched tools of inferior quality.” The plaintiff claims Boeing’s knock-off components then caused leaks delaying a national space system launch.

Chun dismissed several claims without prejudice in his Aug. 1 opinion and gave Wilson ...