A federal judge in California ruled Thursday that NVIDIA Corporation must proceed to trial after an engineer inadvertently exposed suspected stolen autonomous driving trade secrets from a former employer during a video conference.

The judge determined there was sufficient "circumstantial" evidence to suggest that the Silicon Valley artificial intelligence giant benefited from confidential data obtained from European automotive technology company Valeo, warranting the case to proceed before a jury.

NVIDIA has denied allegations of using stolen data to develop its parking assistance technology. However, in Thursday's ruling, U.S. District Judge Noel Wise rejected NVIDIA's motion to dismiss Valeo's lawsuit.

NVIDIA did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside of business hours.

The trial is scheduled to take place in November.