4 Key Takeaways | Trade Secret Update 2024 Legal Developments and Trends
Following a recent trend to reduce large damages awards in trade secret misappropriation cases, a federal judge in Massachusetts cut Insulet Corp.’s damages award from $452 million to $59.4 million to avoid impermissible...more
Ed. Note: This is the fourth in a series of articles taken from Gavin Parsons' CLE presentation for the North Carolina Bar Association's Antitrust and Complex Business Dispute CLE Program presented on Thursday, January 30,...more
Singapore-based XP Power has been ordered to pay $17 million in attorneys’ fees to opponent Comet Technologies, USA, following Comet’s victory at trial. The Northern District of California issued the order in January 2025,...more
Examining the issue of trade secret misappropriation when parties have contractually limited their liability from breach, the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit reversed the district court’s dismissal of the case,...more
On April 4, 2025, the Eleventh Circuit reversed the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama’s ruling dismissing Alabama Aircraft Industries’ (“AAI”) trade secret misappropriation claim against Boeing, thereby...more
In a trade secret misappropriation action, a complainant is required to prove the amount of its damages with reasonable certainty and that this amount has been caused by the misappropriation. Therefore, the trade secret...more
On July 30, 2024, the Court of Appeals of Virginia overturned a two billion dollar (yes, billion with a ‘b’) jury verdict in the Appian v. Pegasystems trade secret lawsuit. Although the Court of Appeals upheld the verdict of...more
The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit largely affirmed a multimillion-dollar award against a temp agency for misappropriation of trade secrets and unjust enrichment due to its employee’s act of obtaining proprietary...more
A Fairfax County, Virginia, jury in May 2022 found that Pegasystems Inc. (Pegasystems) misappropriated trade secrets from its competitor, Appian Corp. (Appian), and awarded Appian more than $2 billion in damages – the largest...more
This is the second of two updates on the impact of Motorola Solutions, Inc. v. Hytera Communications Corp. Ltd., No. 22-2370, ___ F.4th ___ (7th Cir. 2024) on trade secret cases. The first update focused on the...more
The U.S. Supreme Court recently denied a trade secret owner's petition for certiorari in Trizetto Group, Inc. v. Syntel Sterling Best Shores Mauritius Limited. This leaves unresolved a question of when a wrongdoer's avoided...more
On May 25, 2023, the Second Circuit issued an opinion in Syntel Sterling Best Shores Mauritius Ltd. v. TriZetto Group, Inc., No. 21-1370 (2d Cir. 2023) that provides guidance regarding recoverable damages in trade secret...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upheld a jury verdict finding a dietary supplement company liable for misappropriating another company’s research and development (R&D) related to broccoli-seed extract. Caudill...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed a district court’s finding of damages in a trade secrets case under Pennsylvania’s version of the Uniform Trade Secrets Act. The Third Circuit explained that it is...more
Courts have long lamented that “computing damages in a trade secret case is not cut and dry,” Am. Sales Corp. v. Adventure Travel, Inc., 862 F. Supp. 1476, 1479 (E.D. Va. 1994), meaning that “every [trade secret] case...more
An often sought remedy in trade secret cases is unjust enrichment, which DTSA and several uniform state trade secret acts permit plaintiffs to seek for the unlawful benefit received by defendants "that is not addressed in...more
A California federal jury recently decided that Emerson Electric Company owes prefabricated module manufacturer BladeRoom Group Limited $30 million in damages for stealing trade secrets to build a massive new data center. ...more