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NORTHERN CALIFORNIA RECORD

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Caterpillar allegedly shared patented technology with a company's competitior

Patents 09

SAN FRANCISCO — A company has filed suit against a competitor and an international equipment manufacturer for fraud and breach of contract after a partnership between the company and the equipment manufacturer resulted in the alleged inappropriate sharing of private information and patented items with the competitor.

Quanergy Systems Inc. filed a complaint Sept. 13 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against Velodyne LiDAR Inc. and Caterpillar Inc., alleging that they violated the California Civil Code due to misappropriation of trade secrets.

According to the complaint, the plaintiff alleges that in August 2012, Quanergy Systems Inc. was made aware that its direct competitor, defendant Velodyne, entered an exclusive agreement with defendant Caterpillar. Then in the spring of 2015, Caterpillar supposedly announced its discontentment with Velodyne and entered into a mutual non-disclosure agreement with Caterpillar on June 23, 2015. Caterpillar purchased devices from the plaintiff, but returned one item that the plaintiff believed was tampered with. Then Velodyne purportedly reviewed the plaintiff's device, sent a cease and desist order to the plaintiff for accused infringement of its '558 patent, in which Velodyne had no legitimate means of obtaining access to except through Caterpillar. As a result of their actions, the plaintiff was caused to sustain, great and irreparable injury. 

The plaintiff holds Velodyne LiDAR Inc. and Caterpillar Inc. responsible because the defendants allegedly misappropriated the plaintiff's trade secret through illegal acquisition, violated the plaintiff's propriety notice by disclosing the product to its competitor and failed to disclose facts of association to the plaintiff's competitor.

The plaintiff requests a trial by jury and seeks declaratory judgment of the plaintiff's non-infringement, preliminary and permanent injunctions, damages, attorneys' fees, expenses, restitution and other relief as the court deems just. They are represented by Mark F. Lambert, Lam K. Nguyen and Jeffrey M. Walker of Cooley LLP in Palo Alto.

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California case number 3:16-cv-05251

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