Wednesday, September 03, 2008, 9/03/2008 04:43:00 PM

$57.5 Million Trade Secrets (Default) Judgment in North Carolina

From the Raleigh News & Observer, and right in our backyard, news that a North Carolina judge has granted Durham bio-pharmaceutical company, Serenex, a $57.5 million default judgment against Chinese businesses for corporate espionage and stolen trade secrets. (We reported on the filing in July, 2007 here.)

This was, as you can read here http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2007/07/23/story3.html?jst=s_cn_hl, a unique case in that the trade secret thieves actually tried to use the information to patent a cancer technology seemingly derived from the information stolen - ingenuitous criminals, no doubt.

Serenex claimed that its former chemist, Yunsheng Huang, passed along trade secrets to Beijing Gylongli Sci. & Tech. Co. and GYLL Biomedtech. Serenex also sued Tongxiang Zhang, a member of the Chinese Communist Party who runs the two Chinese companies. Serenex also alleged that Zhang and others filed a patent application for a cancer treatment similar to Serenex's.

Serenex was acquired earlier this year by Pfizer.
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