![]() The indictment asserted that Cao and Li conspired to steal and transmit confidential information to a third person, who was then an employee of a Chinese-based competitor, Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine Co. 3 According to news accounts, Lilly valued the stolen information at more than $55 million. citizens, had earlier been arrested and indicted on seven counts of theft and conspiracy to commit theft of trade secrets belonging to Lilly. Guoqing Cao and Shuyu Li, both naturalized U.S. 2 On October 8, 2013, two former Eli Lilly research scientists appeared in Indianapolis federal court in prison stripes and handcuffs. government can and has pressed federal criminal charges in cases involving trade secret theft. Although the huge award was motivated in large part by the defendants’ misconduct (the arbitrator found that the defendants fabricated documents in an attempt to show that some of the trade secrets in question had been publicly disclosed and were no longer secret), 1 the award, which is the third largest on record, underscores the upward trend of damage awards in trade secret cases. In July 2013, the Minnesota Court of Appeals affirmed an arbitration award of $630 million against Western Digital Corporation in a case alleging trade secret misappropriation by former Seagate employee Sining Mao, who left Seagate upon accepting a position with competitor Western Digital ( Seagate Technology, LLC v. Although the unprecedented award was later revised downward, massive awards in cases of trade secret misappropriation are a trend. The case involved trade secret theft by a former employee seeking to capitalize on the misappropriated information with his competing medical device company, Nervicon. (BC424443) (California Superior Court, Los Angeles County) (April 2011)). ![]() ![]() a record $2.3 billion verdict ( Pacesetter Inc. In April 2011, a California jury awarded St. With today’s interconnectedness in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical fields, more collaborations, joint ventures, and outsourcing arrangements among firms, and increased mobility of employees’ careers, life science companies need to not only understand how to protect their trade secrets, but also know how to defend against a claim for trade secret theft. If the alleged trade secret, however, was developed independently, known publicly, or not maintained as a secret, then those defenses may successfully overcome a claim for trade secret misappropriation. Obtaining a trade secret through “improper means” is misappropriation. Trade secrets can be worth tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, and damage awards in trade secret litigation have been high often, there is a lot at stake. In general, a trade secret is information that is not generally known to the public and is maintained as a secret, and it provides a competitive advantage or economic benefit to the trade secret holder. “Had the trial proceeded to its conclusion, it is clear Uber would have prevailed,” Kalanick said.Trade secret protection arises under state common law and state statutes. Kalanick in a statement on Friday said the path to victory was clear: Uber’s sole objective was to hire the most talented scientists and engineers and it had never possessed trade secrets. ![]() ![]() To prevail in the trial, Waymo would have had to prove not only that Uber acquired Waymo’s trade secrets, but that it used them in its own technology. SoftBank bought the majority of its stake at about a 30 percent discount from Uber’s valuation.Īutonomous cars offer a multi-billion-dollar opportunity to remake urban transportation systems, and companies including Apple Inc, General Motors Co and scores of startups are competing to develop the technology. Uber has gone on to raise more than $14 billion in new funding and last month closed a deal with SoftBank Group Corp, in which the Japanese conglomerate, along with other investors, took about a 17.5 percent stake in the company. The settlement increases Alphabet’s stake in Uber from an initial investment of $258 million in 2013, which at the time was Uber’s largest fundraising round. ![]()
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