Sidley Austin

Firm overview:

Spread across 21 offices worldwide, Sidley Austin is a formidable opponent in trade secret litigation. The firm has been called upon by some of the world’s largest companies to represent them when departing employees take valuable know-how with them, and as other trade secrets matters arise.

Sidley possesses vast experience in trade secret law, including ever-evolving federal and state legislation. The firm can draw upon a multitude of heavyweight litigators to respond swiftly and effectively when a client’s trade secrets have been compromised.

Team overview:

Ching-Lee Fukuda heads up Sidley’s IP Litigation practice in New York and is widely respected for her patent and trade secret litigation victories. These include a six-year set of litigations defending Nevro against Boston Scientific’s assertion of 20 patents and more than 60 trade secrets, which ended with Boston paying Nevro $85 million.

Aimee Fagan is co-leader of Sidley’s IP Litigation practice and has been involved in numerous high-stakes cases to defend or enforce patents, trademarks, trade secrets and more. She has also authored articles on trade secrets, including for The Texas Lawbook.

Key matters:

• United States of America v Huawei Technologies

In November 2024, Huawei asked a New York judge to dismiss a multitude of charges levelled at it by the US government, including trade secrets-related allegations the company said were “impermissibly duplicitous”. Huawei is represented by a team from Sidley Austin led by Douglas Axel, as well as David Bitkower and Matthew Hellman from Jenner & Block.

• Victaulic v HiTherm North America et al
  Sidley Austin and law firm Florio Perrucci Steinhardt Capelli & Tipton brought a suit on behalf of Victaulic accusing HiTHERM North America and other defendants of conspiring to misappropriate trade secrets and other assets.
• Sidley partner Aimee Fagan won a motion to compel arbitration from the Eastern District of Texas for a Big Four accounting firm in a case involving claims for trade secret misappropriation, in addition to other claims. Sidley obtained a complete defence verdict for the client on all counts after a week-long arbitration. Fagan’s former firm McKool Smith represented the other side.
• Legacy Separators and Guy Morrison, III v Halliburton Energy Services, et al

Sidley partner Aimee Fagan won a take-nothing verdict in favour of Halliburton in a three-week jury trial in the Houston Federal Court in a case involving fraud, theft of trade secrets, and patent infringement. The jury hung on two patent infringement issues—also in favour of Halliburton. Paul Yetter, of Yetter Coleman in Houston, represented the plaintiff Legacy Separators.

Clients:

Halliburton Energy Services, Huawei, I-Mab Biopharma, Nevro, Victaulic