Lexington Man Convicted of Possessing Stolen Trade Secret
From 2014 to 2017, Yu worked at ADI, where he designed microchips used by the communications, defense and aerospace industries. As a result of his work, Yu had access to ADI’s present and future microchip designs, including their schematic files, design layout files and manufacturing files.
While he was an ADI employee, Yu started his own microchip design firm, Tricon MMIC, LLC, and used the stolen HMC1022A design to manufacture a knock-off version of ADI’s chip. Yu began selling his version of HMC1022A prior to ADI’s release of its chip. ADI cooperated fully in the government’s investigation.
Patent Poetry: Jury Awards $2 Billion in Trade Secret Theft Case
A jury in Virginia has awarded software company Appian Corp. more than $2 billion in damages, finding that its competitor, Pegasystems Inc., had stolen its trade secrets.
Appian, based in McLean, Virginia, alleged in its May 2020 lawsuit that Pegasystems retained an employee of a government contractor from 2012 to 2014 to access its software, helping it to improve its own products and better train its sales force.
IT Specialist Charged in Healthcare Cyberattack Highlights Insider Threat Risks
An IT specialist has been charged for allegedly hacking into a Chicago healthcare organization’s server in 2018, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced.
Aaron Lockner, 35, of Downers Grove, Illinois, formerly worked for an IT company that had a contract with the impacted healthcare organization. As a result, Lockner had access to the healthcare organization’s computer network.
Two months before the incident, Lockner was allegedly denied an employment position at the healthcare company. A few months later, Lockner was terminated from the IT firm.
Former AstraZeneca Exec Charged with Insider Trading in Daiichi Sankyo’s Licensing Deal
According to an SEC complaint, Hugues Joublin, Ph.D.—who was AZ’s global head of corporate affairs for oncology—has been charged with taking advantage of his advance knowledge of the 2019 deal to buy $20,000 worth of stock.
Joublin became aware of AZ’s impending deal to acquire commercial rights to Daiichi Sankyo’s breast cancer drug Enhertu on March 6, 2019, the filing alleges; six days later, Joublin bought the Daiichi stock.
IBM Ordered to Pay $1.6 Bln To BMC Software In AT&T Case
International Business Machines Corp. has been ordered to pay $1.6 billion to BMC Software Inc. for fraud and contract violations in connection with mutual client AT&T Inc.
IBM had serviced AT&T’s mainframe computers for years, but the telecom major relied on BMC software since 2007. Later, AT&T conducted an internal initiative to migrate to IBM software from BMC software.
Following this, in 2017, BMC sued IBM accusing it for poaching AT&T’s software business when both companies renewed their power-sharing deal.
BMC had asked the court to award $791 million for IBM’s breach of their agreement and $104 million for lost profits on the AT&T contract.
CF Woman Charged with Theft of Trade Secrets from Former Employer
According to the criminal complaint, PESI Inc.’s executive director contacted the Eau Claire Police Department on Sept. 1, 2020, saying the company has been the victim of a theft of trade secrets. Czech, who was an on-site business development manager, worked for PESI from July 2017 until she was laid off in June 2020. An IT firm did a forensic audit of Czech’s work computer, which showed emails sent to her Hotmail account and “at least two external storage USB devices were connected to (Czech’s) laptop on June 17, 2020,” the criminal complaint reads.
