Monday, April 14 Tesla Motors filed suit in San Mateo Superior Court against automotive designer Henrik Fisker and the chief operating officer of his design firm, Fisker Coachbuild, Bernhard Koehler.

The lawsuit alleges that Fisker and his company, hired to design both the body and interior of the innovative Tesla four-door, electric-hybrid sedan, committed fraud and misappropriated trade secrets in breach of contract during 2007 while the company worked on the Tesla vehicle known as the WhiteStar.

Fisker, who has done design work for high-end car makers including BMW and Aston Martin, received $800,000 from Tesla and was given access to the company's business plan, engineering data, and trade secrets developed during the production of its initial vehicle offering, the Tesla Roadster.

Additionally, Tesla has accused Fisker of substandard design work that caused a 10-month production delay, during which time Fisker allegedly used the company's data to fuel his own evolving "green" vehicle, the Karma, also a four-door, hybrid-electric to be produced by the newly formed Fisker Automotive.

Attorneys for Fisker have not commented on the pending legislation, but Adam Belsky of Gross, Belsky and Alonson, representing Tesla, said, "What he [Fisker] did is outrageous. Clearly now, in retrospect, Fisker had a strong motivation not to provide his best work for them."

The lawsuit seeks to prevent Fisker from using trade secrets and confidential information gleaned from his association with Tesla and to award to Tesla punitive damages and lost profits in an undisclosed amount.