US Court awards Lumileds permanent injunction against Elec-Tech for misappropriation of epi trade secrets

Lumileds LLC of San Jose, CA, USA says that the Superior Court of California has granted it a permanent, worldwide injunction immediately prohibiting China’s Elec-Tech International Co Ltd (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.

The injunction is the result of a bench trial (following last August’s jury trial), where Lumileds presented experts and evidence that demonstrated the appropriateness of a permanent worldwide injunction. The court specifically found that Lumileds’ trade secrets continue to exist and are valuable. It 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. Further, the court has denied ETI’s motions for a new trial and to set aside the verdict awarded by the jury.

The permanent injunction “further validates the jury’s findings from the 2018 verdict,” says Lumileds’ chief legal officer & senior VP Cheree McAlpine. “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 include the foundational epitaxy-development technology used by Lumileds to produce its high-performance 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 $66m. ETI has filed several actions in China that are retaliatory and frivolous, says Lumileds, and has not made any attempt to resolve the dispute since the jury rendered its verdict in July 2018.

See related items:

Lumileds awarded $66m damages in IP theft lawsuit against ETI

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