LED company secures $66m in trade secrets theft suit

A Silicon Valley jury has awarded technology company Lumileds $66 million after finding that a Chinese competitor stole trade secrets.

The award, from a Superior Court of the State of California, County of Santa Clara jury, is the amount of research and development that Elect-Tech International (ETI), the Chinese company, saved by using Lumileds’ trade secrets.

The verdict was issued on Friday, August 10.

Yesterday, August 13, law firm Reed Smith, which is acting for Lumileds, filed a proposed order at the court. Along with the $66 million award, it proposes an injunction to stop ETI from developing technology using the trade secrets and to return all the materials.

The stolen technology involves computer instructions for programming the reactors used to make semi-conductor chips that create highly energy efficient LED lights.

The jury found that a former Lumileds scientist had stolen trade secrets for ETI and used them to develop ETI’s LED technology.

According to Lumileds, the former scientist negotiated a multimillion dollar agreement with ETI’s chairman and, in the days before he left for China, the scientist accessed critical trade secrets and copied the files to a USB.

Cheree McAlpine, general counsel for Lumileds, said at the time of the jury finding: “The precedent set by today’s verdict sends a clear message to the industry that IP will be guarded and enforced to safeguard the health of our business.”

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