Green Trade Secrets Verdict

From the Springfield (Mass.) Republican, a big verdict story concerning secrets for manufacturing a low-shrink encapsulant for solar panels.

Connecticut-based Specialized Technology Resources Inc. sued its former employee, James Galica, and his new employer, JPS Elastometrics Corp.

The case was tried last year in state court in Massachusetts, and the ruling was finally unsealed last week. The judge awarded the plaintiff $1,075,556 in monetary damages, $2,151,112 in punitive damages, $3,902,592 in attorneys' fees and $1,127,944in reasonable costs.

On top of all that, the judge permanently enjoined the defendants from using the stolen technology and barred them from selling any "low shrink" products for five years.

The judge wrote that the "conduct of the defendants in stealing the plaintiff's protected manufacturing process is so reprehensible that for it to go unpunished would undermine the most basic principles of commercial integrity." Finding the conduct, “pernicious,” she awarded treble damages.

She also laid into defendant Galica for his testimony which she did not find credible: "I found that Mr. Galica would say anything under oath, as long as it was to his benefit."

JPS and Galica have appealed the jury verdict.