SAN FRANCISCO A San Jose jury awarded networking equipment giant Brocade Communications Systems Inc. $112 million Monday in its intellectual property infringement case against market rival A10 Networks Inc.
Brocade’s legal team led by Annette Hurst of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe filed suit in 2010, alleging that A10 and its CEO, Lee Chen, stole trade secrets after an enterprise communications company Chen ran, called Foundry, was bought by Brocade. In the complaint, Brocade says that after Brocade acquired Foundry, Chen founded a separate and competing company, A10 Networks, while still working at Foundry and engaged in “schemes to misappropriate” Brocade IP and recruit away key Foundry engineers and sales staff.
