The lawsuit, filed on Monday afternoon in San Mateo Superior Court in California, accuses designer Henrik Fisker and Bernhard Koehler, the chief operating officer of Fisker's design company Fisker Coachbuild, of fraud, misappropriation of trade secrets, and breach of contract during their year-long effort in 2007 to style the interior and body of the Tesla sedan, called WhiteStar. Tesla paid,nearly $800,000 and gave him Fisker access to its trade secrets.Tesla accuses Fisker of purposely providing substandard designs for the Tesla sedan -- resulting in a six-month delay of its release to 2010 -- while using Tesla's data and holding back Fisker's best designs for his own vehicle.
Shortly after completing services for Tesla, Fisker and Koehler announced they were forming Fisker Automotive to put out a four-door hybrid-electric sedan called the Karma.
