Crowell & Moring
Firm overview:
Crowell & Moring has a successful track record of handling large, complex trade secrets cases across multiple disciplines, jurisdictions and venues. The firm has the capability to litigate the highest-profile civil and criminal disputes, and guides clients through all aspects of the trade secret life cycle, from development through protection. Work highlights for the team include representing Molson Coors in the ‘corn gate’ trade secrets dispute with Anheuser-Busch, and securing a complete defence victory for Lockheed Martin in which Sky Lift Aeronautics sought over $500m in alleged damages.
Services include advising clients on protecting trade secrets through audits, strategic portfolio analyses, and robust on-boarding and off-boarding programmes for employees. The team also helps clients prepare and negotiate non-competition, non-solicitation and confidentiality agreements for senior executives and managers, as well as agreements for supplier/customer relationships.
Crowell’s experience covers a range of sectors including high-tech hardware and software; life sciences; medical devices; automotive and industrial automation; and food and beverage.
Team overview:
Mark Klapow and Valerie Goo co-chair the firm’s Trade Secrets Group, leading an interdisciplinary team of trade secrets lawyers with experience across litigation, employment, antitrust, white collar and IP.
In Los Angeles, experienced trial lawyer Goo has tried numerous cases involving trade secrets, trademarks, unfair competition and more, and successfully obtained and defended against temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions.
DC-based Klapow is a renowned trade secrets litigator who has been called upon by startups and Fortune 500 companies for representation in ‘bet-the-company’ matters. His clients have included household names such as AT&T, Caterpillar, Dow Chemical, Ericsson, Intel, Lenovo, and Molson Coors.
Other team members with notable expertise in trade secrets include Kathryn Clune, a first-chair trial lawyer who handles disputes involving patents, trademarks and trade secrets; and Kent Goss, who focuses his practice on IP matters and complex technology and commercial litigation.
Key matters:
Crowell & Moring successfully defended San Francisco-based technology company Carta in a fiercely contested trade secret and patent case in a California federal court.
The opposing party AllRounds originally sought billions in damages from Carta, but accepted a walk-away settlement after the court struck more than half its patent case and in the face of summary judgment.
The win is a significant victory for the decade-old startup last valued at $7.4 billion in its first major court challenge. April Lindauer, general counsel of Carta, said that Crowell’s IP litigation team was “incredibly talented, combining in-court skills with strategic and very practical thinking”.
Crowell’s team was Mark Klapow (lead partner, DC), William Frankel (partner, IL), Kathryn Clune (partner, DC), Molly Jones (counsel, CA), Laura Schwartz (counsel, CA), and Ryan Fitzgerald (associate, IL).
- C3.ai v Cummins
Crowell represents developer and provider of enterprise AI applications in a trade secret dispute that is pending in Delaware state court. In September 2024, the court rejected the defendant’s dismissal motion, and the matter now heads to the discovery phase.
The team is Mark Klapow (lead partner, DC), Joanna Forster (partner, CA), Joachim Steinberg (counsel, CA), Anna Saber (counsel, CA), Jacob Canter (counsel, CA), Meaghan Katz (associate, CA), and Elissa Tenenbaum (associate, IL).
- Remedi8 v Alliance Environmental Group et al
Kent Goss represented plaintiff Remedi8, a nationwide fire and life safety services company, in a complex litigation matter in the Central District of California. The matter involved several former high-ranking employees of Remedi8 allegedly using Remedi8’s confidential information to coordinate the departure of a large portion of Remedi8’s west coast service team to a competitor and contemporaneously poach Remedi8 customers for the competitor. The matter was settled favourably for Crowell’s client.
On the team with Goss were Jason Stiehl (co-lead partner, IL), and Kainoa Asuega (counsel, CA).
Clients:
Brandon Harvath, C3.ai, Carta, Lockheed Martin, Molson Coors Beverage Company, Remedi8
