Last month we gave a Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher team runners-up honors for fending off a preliminary injunction for Archer Aviation in a high-profile trade secret spat with Wisk Aero in the emerging market for electric vertical takeoff and landing, or eVTOL, aircraft. Welp, it’s only fair that we give their opposing counsel at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, Yury Kapgan and Patrick Schmidt, a runners-up nod for getting a ruling this week denying Archer’s motion to dismiss the case. “Archer’s motions to dismiss and strike are denied because Wisk’s disclosure and identification of its trade secrets are sufficient and it has plausibly alleged that Archer misappropriated at least some of them,” wrote U.S. District Judge William Orrick III in San Francisco. On to the merits, then, for round three.
A team led by Quinn’s Sean Pak also gets runners-up honors for landing a $13.5 million compensatory damages verdict for cybersecurity company Proofpoint Inc. and its Cloudmark subsidiary in trade secrets litigation against competitor Vade Secure and a former Cloudmark employee. The verdict followed a 4-week in-person jury trial in San Francisco federal court. The jury found that Vade willfully and maliciously misappropriated 15 of the 20 trade secrets asserted in the case, opening the door for Proofpoint to ask the judge for punitive damages and attorney’s fees under the Defend Trade Secrets Act. The trial team also included Quinn’s Iman Lordgooei and Jodie Cheng of the JWC Law Firm.
