At A Glance
A Slick Shortcut to Innovation
The CEO of an upstart baking oil company used a fictitious name—John Smith—to exchange emails with a former Mallet & Company employee, covertly engaging in trade secret theft of Mallet’s market-leading commercial baking oil formula.
From Imitation to Litigation
Upon discovery of the theft, Mallet & Company filed suit against Bundy Baking Solutions and Synova, alleging the rival companies had stolen Mallet’s trade secrets in order to replicate and profit from the company’s formula without investing the time, money, and resources Mallet had poured into developing the product.Parachuting in to Protect the Product
Unsatisfied with its initial representation, Mallet hired Mayer Brown to represent the company in a contentious jury trial with significant challenges, including an 11-hour limit for each side to try the case. As the judge stated in a later ruling, the stakes, for the parties, “could not be much higher.”
A Trial Win
In a decisive victory, Mallet won on all claims. The jury found that Bundy and Synova had misappropriated Mallet’s trade secrets and awarded not only compensatory damages, but also punitive damages—after finding the defendants’ conduct “willful and malicious”—against both companies.
An End-of-Year Ruling Grants Complete Victory
In a New Year’s Eve ruling, the judge granted all other relief sought by Mallet, including an injunction, prejudgment interest, and attorneys’ fees and costs, as well as sanctions against the defendants. The ruling banned the defendants from producing and selling the copycat product, ensuring the secrecy and economic value of Mallet’s formulas remain protected.
$19.85M
Total damages awarded to Mallet11
Number of trade secrets that the jury found the defendants had misappropriated5
Number of Mallet employees the defendants secretly contacted for proprietary information