Law.com A federal jury in Atlanta has awarded Lockheed Martin Corp. $37.3 million for the misappropriation by a Texas defense contractor of trade secrets associated with the design and construction of Lockheed's anti-submarine bomber, which is used by navies around the world.
The jury handed down the verdict on Thursday after deliberating two days at the end of a three-week trial against L-3 Communications Corp. -- the sixth-largest defense company in the United States -- and its subsidiary, L-3 Communications Integrated Systems Inc.
"It was a really significant victory for the firm and the client in an unaddressed area of intellectual property law," said Audra A. Dial, a partner at Kilpatrick Stockton in Atlanta and a member of Lockheed's legal team.
"Trade secrets protection for information that is disclosed to the U.S. government really hasn't been addressed in many issues. It's pretty groundbreaking," she said. L-3 Comm, Dial added, was "taking information they had received for U.S. government purposes, from the U.S. government, and attempting to exploit it for their financial gain in a commercial program that had nothing to do with the U.S. government."
The jury handed down the verdict on Thursday after deliberating two days at the end of a three-week trial against L-3 Communications Corp. -- the sixth-largest defense company in the United States -- and its subsidiary, L-3 Communications Integrated Systems Inc.
"It was a really significant victory for the firm and the client in an unaddressed area of intellectual property law," said Audra A. Dial, a partner at Kilpatrick Stockton in Atlanta and a member of Lockheed's legal team.
"Trade secrets protection for information that is disclosed to the U.S. government really hasn't been addressed in many issues. It's pretty groundbreaking," she said. L-3 Comm, Dial added, was "taking information they had received for U.S. government purposes, from the U.S. government, and attempting to exploit it for their financial gain in a commercial program that had nothing to do with the U.S. government."
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