$81M 'Trade Secrets' Verdict Against Boeing Was Overturned - and Then Reinstated

14 months ago a jury ruled against Boeing, awarding $81 million in damages to failed electric airplane startup Zunum. 'Zunum alleged that Boeing, while ostensibly investing seed money to get the startup off the ground, stole Zunum's technology and actively undermined its attempts to build a business,' the Seattle Times reported at the time.

But two months later that verdict was overturned, Reuters reports, with U.S. District Judge James Robart deciding that Zunum 'did not adequately identify its secrets or show that they derived their value from being kept secret.'

And then three days ago a U.S. appeals court reinstated the original $81 million award, reversing that district judge's decision and 'rejecting his finding that the information Boeing allegedly stole was not entitled to trade-secret protection.'

[T]he district court erred in concluding that 'Zunum failed to identify any of its alleged trade secrets with sufficient particularity'... Here, the court rejected Zunum's repeated attempts to introduce comprehensive trade secret definitions into evidence and instead provided the jury with a court-created exhibit enumerating Zunum's alleged trade secrets with a short description of each. Zunum's witnesses identified the trade secrets by number, provided a basic explanation of each, and used exhibits and demonstratives to exemplify information comprising specific trade secrets.
'internal Boeing communications introduced at trial suggesting that Boeing intended to modify its own in-house designs, methods, and strategies to incorporate information from certain Zunum trade secrets...' according to the new ruling. 'Under the parties' agreement, Boeing was not permitted to use Zunum's confidential information for any reason other than to manage its investment in Zunum.'

Reuters adds that 'A spokesperson for Boeing declined to comment on the appeals court's decision'
One final note:
The appeals court also ordered the case to be assigned to a new judge after Robart revealed that his wife had acquired Boeing stock through a retirement savings account during the litigation.


Judge Robart had called that an 'error'. (And judicial ethics experts interviewed by Business Insider in 2024 'characterized Robart's trades and delayed disclosure to the parties as a minor issue,' they reported Thursday.)

But Thursday's ruling notes that the delayed disclosure 'taken together with the district court's consistent rulings in Boeing's favor during and after trial, could give an objective observer reason to question the district judge's impartiality in further proceedings.'

Read more of this story at Slashdot.