Squire Patton Boggs

Firm overview:

Full-service law firm Squire Patton Boggs has developed a broad global network over its 120-year lifespan. It represents clients across a diverse range of industries, from Fortune 100 and FTSE 100 corporations to emerging companies, and from individuals to local and national governments.

With an overarching principle to interweave litigation strategies with its clients’ business objectives, the firm has built a robust trade secrets offering with significant trade secret activity in four of its US offices, and one in Germany.

Team overview:

David Elkins (Recommended) is partner and head of the firm’s Global Intellectual Property & Technology Practice. He serves as lead trial and arbitration counsel in patent, trademark, trade dress, trade secret, false advertising and copyright actions nationwide, and in international arbitrations.

Ron Lemieux (Notable) has served as lead counsel in more than 200 intellectual property disputes and has taken more than 20 cases to final verdict in both jury and bench trials in courtrooms nationwide. He has significant industry experience in semiconductor design and manufacturing, consumer electronics, wireless, cellular, medical devices, software and solar energy devices.

The firm’s trade secrets practitioners handle both trial and transactional matters. A distinguishing feature of the team’s strategy is a deep involvement in the technology aspect of trade secrets, a technique which has built trust with clients and a strong reputation among the judiciary in Northern California.

The team’s strategy includes understanding the technology behind the case and making early strategic decisions, such as choosing the right court for litigation. For example, in representing QuantumScape in an EV battery dispute, the team chose state court for a temporary restraining order.

Key matters:

• QuantumScape v Fisker Electric Vehicles

A Squire Patton team, comprising David Elkins, Todd Ostomel, Ronald Lemieux and Joseph Meckes, provides counsel for QuantumScape, a solid-state battery technology company, in ongoing trade secret-related actions.

The team represented QuantumScape in a case against Fisker Electric Vehicles, filing a complaint in April 2019 in Santa Clara Superior Court. The client alleged that a former QuantumScape employee took confidential documents to a new job at Fisker in late 2018 and early 2019.

A temporary restraining order was secured at the action’s onset, a fully litigated preliminary injunction, and finally a permanent injunction as part of a 2020 confidential settlement following discovery.

• OWLink Technology v Cypress Technologies Co, Case No. 8:21-cv-717, US District Court for the Central District of California

Ronald Lemieux, Marisol Mork, Hannah Makinde, and Xiaomei Cai represent Cypress Technologies in the ongoing defence of a multiclaim lawsuit involving, among others, claims for misappropriation of trade secrets under both federal and state law.

After the matter was brought in December 2023, the Squire Patton team successfully eliminated claims for trade secret theft in favour of the client via an Order for partial summary judgment. The case is valued at $150 million.

Latham and Watkins attorneys, plus Eric Michelman of Law Offices of Eric I. Michelman, act for OWLink Technology.

• Qorvo v Akoustis Technologies et al, 1:21-cv-01417, US District Court for the District of Delaware

Squire Patton represented Akoustis in a trade secret damages case in which the client alleged trade secret misappropriation and patent infringement, seeking $180 million. However, Qorvo won a $38.6 million verdict following a two-week jury trial in October 2024.

After finding that Akoustis infringed two Qorvo patents and wilfully and maliciously misappropriated more than 36 trade secrets involving Qorvo’s radio frequency technology, a jury in a Delaware federal court awarded Qorvo over $31.5 million in compensatory damages and $7 million in exemplary damages.

Ron Lemieux, David Elkins and Victoria Smith formed the trial team for Akoustis. Sheppard Mullin represented Qorvo.

Clients:

Akoustis, OCLC, QuantumScape, Cintas, Cypress Technologies