Welcome to Skilled in the Art. I’m Law.com IP reporter Scott Graham. Here’s what’s cracking this week:
• Judge Rakoff weighs in on trade secrets, specificity and circumstantial evidence of misappropriation. It’s a win for Keker Van Nest & Peters.
• Dechert scores a bench trial win in flavors and fragrances dispute.
• Yes, the district court bench has at least one former Federal Circuit clerk.
• Reed Smith serves up practice pointers in patent eligibility podcast.
• Haynes and Boone and Banner Witcoff welcome new life sciences partners.
Why Judge Rakoff Cut Short a Trade Secrets Trial
Keker, Van Nest & Peters has piloted Veeva Systems to a jury trial win in a trade secrets dispute with competitor Medidata Solutions.
The two companies provide software as a service for the life sciences industry. Medidata, represented by Kirkland & Ellis, accused Veeva of hiring away its employees and using their knowledge of confidential information to quickly stand up competing products that Medidata had spent years developing.
The case went to trial before U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff last week, but it never reached a verdict. Rakoff granted JMOL to Veeva following the close of plaintiff’s case on July 15. Rakoff ruled from the bench that Medidata had not described its trade secrets with sufficient specificity.
Keker’s team for Veeva featured partners Khari Tillery, Laurie Mims, Reid Mullen and Ben Rothstein, and associates Luke Apfeld, Taylor Reeves and Zainab Ramahi.
“We are proud to represent Veeva in this hard-fought case,” Tillery said in a written statement. “We’re grateful to the Court for recognizing that no one at Veeva stole anything.”
Read more here.