ITC terminates Jawbone v Fitbit trade secrets claim

The US International Trade Commission (ITC) has put an end to a long-running infringement dispute between fitness companies Jawbone and Fitbit.

In August last year, the ITC agreed to investigate a complaint filed by Jawbone over misappropriation of its trade secrets and patent infringement.

In April this year, the administrative law judge (ALJ) granted Fitbit’s request to remove the last two patents in the case (there were originally seven in the investigation).

The patents relate to wearable technology in fitness and activity tracker devices to monitor and report on health and wellness metrics.

From this time onwards, the investigation focused on the trade secrets claims made by Jawbone.

During discovery, Jawbone had identified 154 trade secrets which were allegedly misappropriated by Fitbit.

After some claims were removed, by August this year the investigation focused on the remaining five trade secrets.

The ALJ found that “Jawbone failed to show that the alleged trade secrets constitute actual trade secrets, and that respondents did not misappropriate any of Jawbone’s alleged trade secrets”.

In addition, the judge found that Jawbone “failed to prove a threat of substantial injury to a domestic industry”, as required by law.

The ALJ added: “Even if Jawbone had proven misappropriation of the five asserted trade secrets, there is no way to decide on this record what specific injury is attributable to these trade secrets, and whether the injury is substantial.”

In September, Jawbone filed a petition for review of the decision but only on three trade secrets.

Jawbone filed its original complaint in July last year, when it alleged that Fitbit had solicited and pursued Jawbone employees who had access to the company’s confidential information, including that related to product design and sourcing.

After investigating the petition for review, the ITC decided not to review the decision and added that “this investigation is therefore terminated”.

A Fitbit spokesperson declined to comment.

A spokesperson for Jawbone told WIPR: "The ITC's narrow decision involved a handful of trade secret claims presented earlier this year.  Jawbone continues to pursue its trade secret case in California state court, which is much broader in scope and which will head to a jury next year.”