Recent Decisions and Case Developments

Reminding all that misappropriating a trade secret can not only constitute a crime, but also that the intent to reap an economic benefit is sufficient to sustain a conviction under 18 USC Section 1832, the Ninth Circuit upheld the criminal conviction of Suibin Zhang for the theft of Marvell Semiconductor Inc.’s trade secrets.

After a bench trial, Zhang was found guilty and sentenced to three months in prison followed by three months of supervised release, 200 hours of community service, and $75,000 in restitution. Zhang appealed, challenging the sufficiency of the evidence and contending that his Sixth Amendment right to a public trial was violated.

On appeal, the Ninth Circuit held that there was, in fact, sufficient evidence, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Marvell took “reasonable measures” to protect its trade secrets. Marvell did so by advising users of the existence of their trade secrets and by limiting access on a need to know basis and controlled access through passwords. The Court also held that, although Zhang did not personally sign the Marvell non-disclosure agreement, he accepted a limited license agreement that incorporated its terms.

The Court further held that even though Zhang never sold the documents or sent around economically valuable secrets, sufficient evidence established that he intended to reap an economic reward. The Court held this same evidence established an intent to injure Marvell, enough to uphold the criminal conviction. Intent, this case, was key.

Medical Device Company Globus met with Dr. Bianco back in 2007 to tell them about his idea for a new device to be used as an interbody spacer. The spacers that existed at the time did not have the ability to expand and contract at the surgeon's will, and thus Dr. Bianco's innovation was to create a design that was capable of doing so. Globus told Dr. Bianco that they would let him know whether they wanted to pursue his invention, but after a short period, they told him they were not interested. In 2011, however, Dr. Bianco learned that they had pursued his idea, when Globus tried to sell one of their products employing the technology to Dr. Bianco.

Ultimately, the jury awarded over $4 million to Dr. Bianco for the theft of his Trade Secrets. No recovery would have been possible if not for the mutual NDA both parties had agreed to prior to their initial meeting. Followings the jury's award, Globus filed for a judgment as a matter of law, but Judge Bryson was unconvinced by Globus' numerous legal arguments, and denied the motion in a decision issued on October 27.

In a recent District Court opinion in the Central District of California, Judge Pregerson denied a defendant's motion for summary judgment on the issue of trade secret misappropriation under the California Uniform Trade Secrets Act (“CUTSA”), Cal. Civil Code § 3426 et seq. Central to the trade secret claim, is the controversial issue of whether and to what extent LinkedIn contacts are trade secrets.

In the opinion, Judge Pregerson explains that while a list of business contacts can be protected as a trade secret, certain conditions must be met. Essentially, the list must have been difficult to create, and the list cannot be easily obtained through public sources. In this situation, it remains unclear how difficult it was to obtain the information, since many of the individuals the Defendant had contacted, had already been contacted by competitors, and "LinkedIn suggested contacts to [the defendant] automatically."

Also unclear, is the issue of whether the contacts were permissibly made available to the public. Defendant argues the company encouraged him to have a LinkedIn account, and his LinkedIn contacts would have been viewable to "any other contact he has on LinkedIn." In contrast, Plaintiff argues that LinkedIn information is "only available to the degree that the user chooses to share it."

These issues will likely be decided when the case goes to trial, and could have a serious impact on the role that LinkedIn currently plays in the corporate world.

According to a Washington state appeals court, once a plaintiff in a trade secrets misappropriation case has established sales, the burden then shifts to the defendant to establish what portion of those sales were not attributable to the misappropriated trade secret.

The appeals court overturned a jury's finding of no damage from the misappropriation on the grounds that the jury instructions had misstated the law, and in doing so had improperly shifted the burden of proof from the defendant to the plaintiff.

The instruction, the appeals court held, was a “misstatement of law” given that “the plaintiff's initial burden is to prove only ‘sales,' not ‘damages from sales,' before the burden shifts to the defendant.”