By: Dan D'Ambrosio, Free Press Staff Writer

In the limited history of Vermont trade secrets cases, one stands out: The battle in Brattleboro of Omega Optical Inc. vs. Chroma Technology Corp. The legal fight lasted many years in the 1990s, leaving hard feelings that persist to this day.

It began in 1991, when a group of six Omega employees left the Brattleboro company to form their own competing firm, Chroma Technology, in nearby Bellows Falls. The two firms went head-to-head in the marketplace for special optical filters used on microscopes and telescopes for a wide range of scientific purposes. The filters were developed by Omega's founder, Robert Johnson, according to Johnson's attorney, Bernard Lambek of Montpelier.

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By: Don Jeffrey

A former employee of Akamai Technologies Inc. (AKAM) admitted providing trade secrets to an undercover U.S. agent posing as an Israeli intelligence officer.

Elliot Doxer, 43, pleaded guilty to one count of foreign economic espionage, according to a statement today from the office of U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz in Boston.
Doxer sent an e-mail to the Israeli consulate in Boston in 2006 saying he worked in Akamai's finance department and had information that might be helpful to Israel, the U.S. attorney's office said in the statement.

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THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BUSINESSWEEK

Clean coal technology company ADA-ES Inc. will pay Norit Americas Inc., a maker of activated carbon, more than $40.5 million to settle a trade secret dispute.

Norit, based in Marshall, Texas, claims ADA stole its protected information and used it to construct a manufacturing facility in Louisiana. An arbitration panel found that ADA and two former Norit employees liable for theft of trade secrets and breach of contract.

Under the terms of the settlement announced Wednesday, ADA will pay Norit $33 million immediately, followed by $7.5 million over the next three years. ADA will also make payments for a part of the royalties on all carbon sales from the facility.

By: Jonathan Katz

Digital mobility and globalization mean manufacturers need to be more vigilant regarding intellectual property.

DuPont Co. won big last week when a jury awarded the company nearly $1 billion in its trade-secrets case against Kolon Industries Inc. The ruling provided some redemption for DuPont after the company accused former employees of giving away proprietary information regarding its high-strength Kevlar fiber to the South Korean competitor.

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BY: KEVIN ROOSE

A bitter trial that rattled the normally quiet world of mutual funds came to an unusual end on Friday, as a jury awarded Jeffrey E. Gundlach, a star bond fund manager, millions of dollars in unpaid compensation even though it found him liable for breaching his fiduciary duty and stealing trade secrets at his former firm, Trust Company of the West.

Jurors took two days to find Mr. Gundlach and three co-defendants liable for taking trade secrets from Trust Company of the West, known as TCW, after he was fired in December 2009. It also found all four liable for breaching their fiduciary duty to TCW and Mr. Gundlach liable for interfering with investor contracts.

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By Steve Green

Las Vegas Sands Corp. is ratcheting up the legal pressure on its fired Macau CEO, hitting him with a new lawsuit alleging misappropriation of trade secrets.

The suit was filed Friday in Clark County District Court against Steven Jacobs. A few days earlier, Las Vegas Sands had accused Jacobs of stealing company information.

The initial information theft allegation was made in an amended Las Vegas Sands counterclaim in a lawsuit filed by Jacobs charging he was wrongfully fired in July 2010 and then denied valuable stock options.

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By RANDALL CHASE
AP Business Writer

DOVER, Del. (AP) -- A federal jury awarded $919.9 million in damages to the DuPont Co. on Wednesday in a trade-secrets lawsuit involving high-strength synthetic fibers used in products such as Kevlar body armor.

The ruling was handed down by a jury in Richmond, Va., following a trial that pitted Delaware-based DuPont against South Korean competitor Kolon Industries. The jury found that Kolon had maliciously and willfully misappropriated 149 DuPont trade secrets related to the technology, known as aramid fibers.

DuPont Senior Vice President and General Counsel Tom Sager said Kolon's actions represented perhaps the most egregious case of trade-secrets theft he had seen in his more than 30 years at DuPont.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

A former Indiana scientist has agreed to plead guilty to charges of illegally sending trade secrets worth $300 million to China and Germany.

A federal judge in Indianapolis on Thursday scheduled a plea hearing for Kexue Huang for Oct. 18.

Huang could face up to 15 years in prison if the judge accepts his guilty plea. Huang agreed to plead guilty to one count of theft and attempted theft of trade secrets to benefit a foreign government and instrumentality in a document filed last month in U.S. District Court.

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BY KEVIN ROOSE

Jurors took two days to find Mr. Gundlach and three co-defendants liable for taking trade secrets from Trust Company of the West, known as TCW, after he was fired in December 2009. It also found all four liable for breaching their fiduciary duty to TCW and Mr. Gundlach liable for interfering with investor contracts.

But, in a twist, the jury awarded no damages to TCW for the breach and contract claims. Instead, the jury awarded Mr. Gundlach and his co-defendants $66.7 million in damages related to a countersuit he filed against TCW, in which he contended that he was owed millions of dollars in fees for the funds he ran.

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By: JOAN LAPPIN

An Austrian court has convicted American Superconductor's rogue employee, Dejan Karabasevic, and already sentenced him to a year in jail and two years of probation. He sold trade secrets to Chinese wind turbine maker Sinovel. American Superconductor is now able to reveal some of what happened to so damage the company and its stock. The story is shocking in its simplicity.

The Croatian former employee was disgruntled after being demoted from the design team to marketing efforts. He was part of a small cadre of trusted employees who had access to the software code. He was identified rapidly because he was part of an even smaller group that was in China working with Sinovel.

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