Prof. Elizabeth Rowe (Florida) has posted a new article on trade secret damages: Unpacking Trade Secret Damages. The article looks at outcomes of about 150 federal trade secret lawsuits that went to trial and received a verdict. These cases are all pre-DTSA and thus in federal court on diversity or supplemental jurisdiction grounds. Prof Rowe found – in my view – a surprisingly low percentage of cases where punitive damages or attorney fees were awarded (~2% and 8% respectively – of cases with an award).
The award distribution is also highly skewed. “[T]en cases account for half of the total damages of the approximately $2.4 billion awarded since 2000.” Top on this list is DuPont’s 2011 award of 900 million against Kolon.
Well, we are just going to have to have stiffer penalties for Trade Secret theft and other malfeasance.
Maybe criminal penalties…
That’ll learn them.
(holding up sarcasm sign)
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