National Stolen Property Act (NSPA)

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Last year saw many important trade secret developments in the court. Here is our Top 5:

1. DuPont v. Kolon

This case had it all. What appeared at first to be the actions of one disgruntled employee turned out to be a long-standing high-level initiative of Kolon to target former DuPont employees in order to develop its fledgling para-aramid fiber using the secrets behind industry standard Kevlar. There was spoliation, 400 page expert reports arguing all of DuPont’s trade secrets were disclosed in its own patents, antitrust counterclaims, criminal charges, Korean investigations, a two-month jury trial culminating in a damages award just shy of a billion dollars, an appeal, and finally—in 2015—resolution. This epic battle came to end with Kolon being criminally indicted, paying $275 million to DuPont in restitution, and settling the civil case under undisclosed terms. Read about it here.Continue Reading 2015 Trade Secret Year in Review: Key Courtroom Developments

Sergey Aleynikov, the former Goldman Sachs computer programmer accused of stealing computer source code powering the bank’s high-frequency trading platform, has been convicted by a New York jury of a single count of Unlawful Use of Secret Scientific Material.  The jury hung on a second Unlawful Use count and acquitted Aleynikov on a third count of Unlawful Duplication of Computer-Related Material.

This is not the first time Aleynikov has been criminally convicted for this same conduct:  In 2010, Aleynikov was charged, tried and convicted in federal court of violating the federal National Stolen Property Act (“NSPA”) (18 USC § 2314) and Economic Espionage Act (“EEA”) (18 USC § 1832).  However, in 2012, the Second Circuit reversed both convictions.Continue Reading Split Verdict – Second Criminal Trial of Infamous Goldman Source-Code Thief Concludes

In United States v. Agrawal, the Second Circuit upheld a jury’s 2010 conviction of a former Société Générale trader under the Economic Espionage Act (EEA) and the National Stolen Property Act (NSPA). The three-judge panel unanimously affirmed the NSPA conviction, but split on whether the EEA conviction could stand in light of the Second…