An appeals court has reluctantly vacated a $919 million jury verdict that DuPont Co. won against a South Korean competitor in a trade secrets theft case, handing a big win to appellate ace Paul Clement of Bancroft PLLC and cocounsel at Paul Hastings.
In a decision issued on Thursday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that Kolon Industries Inc. is entitled to a new trial on claims that it misappropriated trade secrets relating to DuPont’s lucrative Kevlar product. The court ruled that U.S. District Judge Robert Payne in Richmond erred in blocking Kolon from arguing that DuPont had largely waived Kevlar’s protected trade secret status by divulging details about it in an intellectual property case against a company called AkzoNobel.
