We have been retained as an expert witness in more than fifteen different trade secret cases related to software and e-commerce. We have worked on matters related to financial services, health care, real estate, SaaS, e-commerce, telecommunications, retailing, distribution and other industries.
Our role in trade secret litigation matters has varied depending on client needs. We have, for example, assisted plaintiff’s counsel and their clients in the identification of trade secrets with reasonable particularity in the early stages of litigation. We have also assisted with discovery requests and in preparing questions for depositions of fact witnesses and other experts.
Our work has included assisting counsel in litigation that seeks to block employees without non-compete agreements from working at other companies where disclosure of trade secrets may be unavoidable.
In many of our trade secret cases, we analyze the implementation technologies, i.e., the “how-to” of the trade secrets. As part of this work, we review and analyze the provenance of the trade secrets and the development practices of the plaintiff (or defendant). We analyze source code, artifacts, and other materials to ascertain independent development and assess publicly-available materials, including, but not limited to, other software products and services, academic literature, and practitioner literature.
We have also been retained by counsel to assess whether an owner has taken reasonable measures to protect its business and technical trade secrets relative to industry customs and practices.
Additionally, in some matters, counsel has asked us to assist damages experts in regards to the key economic and business assumptions in their work, including quantifying the benefits of a “headstart.”
Representative Expert Witness Engagements
- We were retained by counsel for the plaintiff, a publicly-traded, e-commerce company, regarding trade secrets and other confidential and proprietary information misappropriated by the defendant, a publicly-traded company that was previously in a partnership with the plaintiff.
- Our work analyzed the measures the plaintiff took to protect its trade secrets to determine whether such measures were reasonable; whether the defendant followed customs and practices in its relationship with the plaintiff, including accessing and using the plaintiff’s confidential and proprietary information; and the technical benefits the defendant misappropriated. We also assisted the damages experts in their analysis of the economic damages.
- We were retained by counsel for the defendant, a telecommunications billing software company, in a trade secret matter. We analyzed the “how-to” in the relevant software and compared the respective software programs and development practices to determine whether there had been misappropriation and whether the defendant benefitted from a headstart.
- We were retained by counsel for the plaintiff on behalf of one of the world’s largest investment management companies in a trade secret case relating to the development of technologies used in securities trading and risk management.
- We were retained by counsel for the plaintiff, a developer of e-commerce software for the health care industry, in a copyright and trade secret case.
- We were retained by counsel for the defendant, a publicly-traded software company that sells on-premise and SaaS licenses for software used in e-commerce, in a trade secret case.
- We were retained by counsel for the plaintiff, one of the world’s largest real estate-focused software companies, in a trade secret case.
- We were retained by counsel for the plaintiff, a software company focused on the multi-family real estate market, in a trade secret case. Our work covered liability and damages.
- We were retained by counsel for the defendant, one of the world’s largest distributors of computers and electronic equipment, in a trade secret case related to an application used to support sales and marketing.
- We were retained by counsel for the plaintiff, the developer of a payments-guarantee platform used in e-commerce, in a trade secret case.