Plaintiff Receives Million Plus Attorneys’ Fees Award In Trade Secret Dispute Despite Small Damages Award

A recent trade secret misappropriation action resulted in an award of compensatory damages of $41,000 and punitive damages of $40,000. Then, the plaintiff asked for more than a million dollars in attorney’s fees and costs. The defendants protested that (a) the fee request was grossly disproportionate to the damages that were recovered, and (b) the plaintiff’s billing was excessive. However, except for reimbursement of the expense of one expert witness the court deemed unnecessary, the entire requested amount was awarded. SKF USA, Inc. v. Bjerkness, Civil Action Nos. 08C 4709 and 09 C 2232 (N.D. Ill., Sept. 27, 2011).

An employee of plaintiff SKF left in order to “set up a competing business, taking with him a handful of other SKF employees and thousands of SKF’s computer files.”

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