Jones Day recognized by the Daily Journal for two "Top Defense Verdicts" for 2021 in California

Two verdicts won by Jones Day have been recognized by the Daily Journal among its "Top Defense Verdicts of 2021 in California." In both cases, the Firm won summary judgment on trade secret claims asserted against its clients. The Jones Day lawyers on the defense teams represented multiple offices and practices.

Jones Day represented Experian Information Solutions, Inc. in a trade secrets and contract dispute with Weiss Residential Research, LLC. Weiss claimed that Experian fraudulently misappropriated its residential property valuation data and its purported "know-how" in matching that data to Experian's consumer credit data. The case concerned Experian's development of a Current Expected Credit Loss ("CECL") model, which financial institutions are required to implement to comply with recently adopted accounting standards. After successfully dismissing five of Weiss's seven causes of action on the pleadings, Experian moved for summary judgment on Weiss's two remaining causes of action. The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California granted Experian's motion in its entirety, finding that Weiss provided its data and services in accordance with its bargained-for duty to do so, not because of a fraudulent scheme to misappropriate Weiss's trade secrets or mislead Weiss through fraud. The Jones Day team representing Experian was led by Richard Grabowski, John Vogt, and Ryan Ball, and included Ashley Sarkozi, Hannah Bensen, and Michael Kushner.

Jones Day successfully defended SAP, one of the world's leading producers of software for the management of business processes, against trade secret and antitrust claims in a lawsuit filed in the Northern District of California. Teradata, a database software company, filed suit in 2018, alleging that SAP misappropriated trade secrets during a joint project between the parties, and used those trade secrets to develop HANA—SAP's revolutionary in-memory database product. Teradata further alleged that SAP was attempting to monopolize the database market, and unlawfully tied HANA together with SAP's ERP software, known as S/4HANA, in violation of federal antitrust law. Teradata sought significant damages, in addition to injunctive relief. Jones Day persuaded the district court to grant summary judgment on both of Teradata's core claims. The court held, first, that contracts between the parties required Teradata to mark the alleged trade secrets as confidential, which Teradata did not do, and gave SAP ownership rights over modifications to SAP's products resulting from the project. The court held, second, that Teradata's antitrust claims failed because Teradata failed to properly define a tying or tied market, and failed to show that SAP caused actual injury to competition in the markets Teradata did define. The Jones Day team representing SAP was led by Greg Lanier and included Joshua Fuchs, Nathaniel Garrett, Joseph Beauchamp, Albert Liou, Geoffrey Oliver, Catherine Zeng, and Jason McDonell.