In a major early-stage win for firm client Bexson Biomedical, Inc., Italy’s Court of Rome recently dismissed the second of two related legal proceedings brought by CyDex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. arising from a 2019 supply contract between Bexson and CyDex.
CyDex initially filed suit against Bexson in the Delaware Court of Chancery. After Bexson moved to dismiss, CyDex filed a second, related suit in the Court of Rome against Bexson’s Italian device manufacturing partner. In both cases, CyDex alleged it had provided trade secret information to Bexson under the parties’ supply contract and that Bexson had misused that information in violation of the agreement, including by allegedly sharing CyDex trade secrets with its Italian partner. In the Italian case, CyDex took advantage of a unique aspect of Italian law which allows a party alleging trade secret misappropriation to file a verified complaint, seek an ex parte civil search order, and, if successful, serve the search order and conduct a broad search and collection from the defendant—all without notice and before litigating the merits of its allegations. Bexson learned of the Italian proceedings after these events had occurred, and sought and was granted permission to intervene.
Following multiple rounds of briefing, substantial evidentiary submissions, and two hearings, the Court of Rome recently dismissed CyDex’s Italian proceeding in its entirety, revoked the previously granted search order, and ordered CyDex to pay the costs and fees of the defense. The Court of Rome found that CyDex failed to establish the existence or misuse of trade secrets and that the parties’ contract and course of dealing undermined certain of its claims. The Court of Rome’s ruling marks a rare early-stage dismissal, as only a small fraction of such Italian trade secret proceedings are dismissed following an initial grant of a search order in response to a verified pleading. CyDex has appealed the dismissal.
* Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati represents Bexson in connection with its dispute with CyDex. Corona Law, an Italian firm, represents Bexon in the Italian proceedings.
