Top 10 Lists

UPDATE: A New Top 10 Disclosed Trade Secret Settlement

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A new trade secrets settlement has shaken up our top 10 disclosed settlements of all time.  Business Logic, a Chicago-based developer of financial software, reports that the investment firm Morningstar, Inc. has agreed to pay it $61 million to settle a trade secrets action.

According to Business Logic’s press release, the company alleged that Morningstar and its subsidiary, Ibbotson Associates, violated a contract and took Business Logic’s intellectual property in a case involving software for managing 401(k) retirement accounts. READ MORE →

UPDATE: Money, Money, Money: Top 10 Trade Secret Verdicts (With Our Runner-Up Overturned)

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Big IP verdicts aren’t limited to patent cases. Trade secrets can mean big money, too. Really big. As in multi-, multi-million dollar verdicts. And the trend is up with more than half of the top ten verdicts coming out in just the past two years.
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Trials are expensive. They’re also unpredictable. So when a plaintiff seeking damages in a trade secret case decides to take the case all the way through trial, it’s hoping for a jackpot. Otherwise the costs and risks of trial likely wouldn’t make it worth gambling the result on a jury.

For the parties below, the gamble paid off.

Trade Secrets Watch reviewed trade secret misappropriation cases over the past decade and dug up the largest verdicts on record. We also noted any post-verdict information to the extent it was available. READ MORE →

PULLING BACK THE VEIL: Top 10 Disclosed Trade Secret Settlements

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Litigation settlements can often be shrouded in secrecy, and trade secret litigation settlements are no different.  Parties are often sworn to confidentiality, and court dockets are typically silent on the amount of settlements (or even on their existence).  Undaunted, Trade Secrets Watch tried to pull back the curtain, hunting for the biggest trade secrets settlements we could find.  Although these settlements generally run smaller than the top 10 trade secret verdicts we brought you earlier, they are still quite substantial and confirm that trade secret cases can mean big money:

READ MORE →

UPDATE: Money, Money, Money: Top 10 Trade Secret Verdicts (Plus One Jumbo Arbitration Award)

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Revised post available here.

Big IP verdicts aren’t limited to patent cases. Trade secrets can mean big money, too. Really big. As in multi-, multi-million dollar verdicts. And the trend is up with more than half of the top ten verdicts coming out in just the past two years.
shutterstock_122151922
Trials are expensive. They’re also unpredictable. So when a plaintiff seeking damages in a trade secret case decides to take the case all the way through trial, it’s hoping for a jackpot. Otherwise the costs and risks of trial likely wouldn’t make it worth gambling the result on a jury.

For the parties below, the gamble paid off.

Trade Secrets Watch reviewed trade secret misappropriation cases over the past decade and dug up the largest verdicts on record. We also noted any post-verdict information to the extent it was available.

(Editor’s note: After we posted our Top 10 list, below, a Minnesota state appeals court affirmed a $630 million arbitration award against Western Digital Corp. over allegations of trade secret misappropriation. See Seagate Tech. LLC v. Western Digital Corp., No. A12-1944, Minn. Ct. App. (St. Paul) (July 22, 2013). This would have ranked at No. 3 on our list, had a jury made the award. Regardless, this case confirms that the era of massive trade secret awards has arrived.)
READ MORE →

Money, Money, Money: Top 10 Trade Secret Verdicts

and Posted on

Revised post available here.

Big IP verdicts aren’t limited to patent cases. Trade secrets can mean big money, too. Really big. As in multi-, multi-million dollar verdicts. And the trend is up with more than half of the top ten verdicts coming out in just the past two years.
shutterstock_122151922
Trials are expensive. They’re also unpredictable. So when a plaintiff seeking damages in a trade secret case decides to take the case all the way through trial, it’s hoping for a jackpot. Otherwise the costs and risks of trial likely wouldn’t make it worth gambling the result on a jury.

For the parties below, the gamble paid off.

Trade Secrets Watch reviewed trade secret misappropriation cases over the past decade and dug up the largest verdicts on record. We also noted any post-verdict information to the extent it was available.
READ MORE →