Audio conferencing systems provider, ClearOne Communications today announced a jury has awarded the company with a multimillion-dollar in damages in a secret federal trade case.
ClearOne (News - Alert) initiated a jury trial against Biamp Systems Corporation, WideBand Solutions, three of WideBand's (News - Alert) principals- Dr. Jun Yang, a former ClearOne employee, Andrew Chiang, who has affiliated with an entity that sold certain assets to ClearOne, Lonny Bowers, and Versatile DSP.
The trial was held in a federal court in Utah and set out to clear up ClearOne's claim that the defendants were guilty of “misappropriation of trade secrets, breach of contract, breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and breach of fiduciary duty, primarily in relation to the theft of certain algorithms and computer code.”
ClearOne was represented by Utah law firm, Magleby & Greenwood, P.C, for the trial and throughout this case.
On November 5, the jury found ClearOne’s complaints to be true against the defendants and awarded the company with approximately $3.5 million in compensatory damages and $7.0 million in punitive damages.
The jury found that all of the defendants guilty of embezzling ClearOne's trade secrets. Based on this finding, the court may also give ClearOne exemplary damages and reasonable attorneys' fees.
The court left in place the previously-entered preliminary injunction, pending ClearOne's application for entry of a permanent injunction against the Defendants.
While ClearOne intends to continue actively pursing the collection of the damage pay-outs, collectability of the judgments are not guaranteed. In addition, the defendants can appeal the jury's verdict and damage awards.
ClearOne is a communications solutions company that develops and sells audio conferencing systems and other related products for audio, video, and Web conferencing applications.
On Thursday, ClearOne announced it had been chosen as the recipient of the 2008 Global Market Leadership Award from research firm, Frost & Sullivan.
ClearOne received this award based on its substantial contributions in market leadership, including uncovering market challenges, drivers and limitations, as well as strategy development and ways to address the ever-changing market.
Michelle Robart is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Michelle's articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Michelle Robart