Lumileds granted Injunction Against Elec-Tech
US Court issues permanent worldwide Injunction for misappropriation of epitaxy growth trade secrets
The Superior Court of California has granted Lumileds a permanent, worldwide injunction against Elec-Tech International (ETI), immediately prohibiting ETI and its affiliates from using, disclosing, licensing, or selling Lumileds’ epitaxy technology trade secrets that ETI was found to have misappropriated.
The injunction also prohibits ETI from manufacturing, distributing, importing, exporting, or selling any products that use certain of ETI’s own epitaxy growth recipes that the jury concluded were produced using Lumileds’ trade secrets.
This injunction is the result of a bench trial (following last August’s jury trial), where Lumileds presented experts and significant evidence that clearly demonstrated the appropriateness of a permanent worldwide injunction.
The Court specifically found that Lumileds’ trade secrets continue to exist and are valuable. The Court determined that without an injunction, ETI would continue to misappropriate Lumileds’ trade secrets and further stated that if ETI continued to use the stolen intellectual property, Lumileds would suffer irreparable harm. Furthermore, the Court has denied ETI’s motions for a new trial and to set aside the verdict awarded by the Jury.
“We are very pleased with the Court’s determination that a permanent injunction is warranted in this case as it further validates the jury’s findings from the 2018 verdict,” said Cheree McAlpine, chief legal officer and SVP of Lumileds. “Protecting our innovations is paramount to our business, and we will continue to vigorously defend our intellectual property.”
After a four-week jury trial beginning in July 2018, a jury of 12 people found that ETI misappropriated and used five Lumileds’ trade secrets related to epitaxy technology. These trade secrets include the foundational epitaxy-development technology used by Lumileds to produce its LEDs.
The jury determined that ETI used Lumileds’ trade secrets in six of their recipes and the misappropriation and use of Lumileds’ trade secrets was a substantial factor in causing ETI to have obtained an unjust benefit of $66 million.
