HOUSTON (Nov. 24, 2014) – Litigation firm Susman Godfrey won a $15 million jury verdict Thursday for client GlobeRanger Corporation in a trade secret misappropriation case first filed in 2010. Taking the case over from another firm last October, the Susman Godfrey team prevailed after a three-week trial in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
The case centered on GlobeRanger’s radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, which the company developed for large-scale use in supply chain. Using passive RFID tags and active readers, the technology uses radio frequency to track high-value items in transit.
“The RFID technology at issue here was unique because it was one of the first scaled for the large applications,” said Ophelia Camiña, the lead Susman Godfrey attorney on the case. “RFID technology is not very precise. Instead of reading a tag once, it usually gets read multiple times. The unique and novel aspects of GlobeRanger’s technology lie in its filtering and processing abilities and complex workflows, which all happen in real time.”
GlobeRanger licensed its iMotion software system to the U.S. Navy for use in tracking its high-value goods. The iMotion software system was deployed at three naval depots in Hawaii and San Diego, California. GlobeRanger alleged that Software AG wrongfully obtained copies of its software system as deployed at the Navy depots, and reverse engineered the trade secrets from the GlobeRanger software and then created a competing software product. The jury agreed, returning a $15 million verdict.
Brian Melton, a Susman Godfrey partner on the case, noted the client’s elation when the verdict was handed down after four hard-fought years. “Most days it is easy to forget that what we do really impacts individuals on so many levels – but today is not one of those days,” Melton said on Thursday. “Our client was visibly moved after hearing the jury’s verdict. I am proud of our team, and proud of our firm for taking on the hard cases.”
Ophelia Camiña, Brian Melton, Jeremy Brandon and David Shank made up the Susman Godfrey team. The case is GlobeRanger Corporation v. Software AG et al, case No. 3:11-cv-00403, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
