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In an order dated April 20, 2021, U.S. District Judge Lorna G. Schofield granted Syntel Inc.’s request for a new trial or remittitur on the $569,710,384 punitive damage award issued against Syntel following an October 2020 jury trial.

In October 2020, a New York federal jury found that Syntel had misappropriated the TriZetto Group, Inc.’s trade secrets in violation of the Defend Trade Secrets Act and New York law. The jury also found that Syntel infringed one or more of TriZetto’s copyrights. The jury awarded $284,855,192 million in compensatory damages and $569,710,384 million in punitive damages.
Continue Reading New York Federal Judge Finds Punitive Damages Award Excessive Following Trade Secrets Trial

On September 30, 2020, a Texas federal jury found that San Francisco-based billing technology company Hint Health did not misappropriate the trade secrets of its former partner, Accresa. The jury also rejected Hint Health’s defamation counterclaim and awarded no damages on its breach of contract counterclaim.
Continue Reading Texas Jury Finds Billing Technology Company Did Not Steal Trade Secrets

On August 4, 2020, U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of California William Alsup sentenced former Uber executive Anthony Levandowski to 18 months in prison after Levandowksi pleaded guilty to stealing trade secrets relating to Google’s self-driving vehicle project. The judge also ordered Levandowski to pay over $700,000 in restitution.

Levandowski was a Google…

In an April 16, 2020 ruling, the District Court for the District of Massachusetts re-affirmed that a plaintiff bringing a claim under the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) must allege “ownership of confidential information” to survive a motion to dismiss. The court in Focused Impressions, Inc. v. Sourcing Grp., LLC, No. 19-CV-11307-ADB, 2020 WL 1892062 (D. Mass. Apr. 16, 2020) granted a motion to dismiss a third-party complaint against a Plaintiff’s former COO where the third-party complaint failed to adequately allege ownership of confidential information.

Plaintiffs Focused Impressions, Inc. (FII) and Focused Impressions Technology, LLC (FIT) sued (among others) Lynn Smith, the former chief operating officer of FII and a former member of FIT, for violation of the DTSA. The third-party complaint alleged that Smith used confidential pricing information about FII’s clients, the Regal Press (Regal) and Wright Business Graphics, LLC (Wright). Smith moved to dismiss the complaint, arguing that Plaintiffs failed to allege ownership of confidential information, as required by the DTSA. The court agreed.
Continue Reading Federal District Court in Massachusetts Dismisses DTSA Complaint that Failed to Allege Ownership of Confidential Information