Late-Filed Standing Challenge Wins in Case Citing Embarrassing GC’s Tape
A stolen trade secrets case that relies partly on a general counsel’s mistaken voice mail message has been tossed after a late-hour dismissal motion argued a lack of standing.
Santa Clara, Calif., Superior Court Judge Thomas Edwards ruled yesterday that Jasmine Networks Inc. can’t sue Marvell Semiconductor Inc. for alleged stolen trade secrets because Jasmine sold the intellectual property in question, the Recorder reports.
The dismissal motion was filed by Marvell’s law firm, Latham & Watkins, nearly eight years after the case was first filed, the story says. Latham was hired after Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges was disqualified for a conflict in January, after handling the case for just three months. Other law firms that previously represented Marvell were Buchalter Nemer and, for a brief time, Fenwick & West.
Jasmine’s lawyers had argued the judge overseeing its bankruptcy ruled it had standing to pursue the trade secrets claim despite the sale of its intellectual property.
Jasmine’s case relied in part on a tape of Marvell former general counsel Matthew Gloss, recorded when he failed to hang up after calling a Jasmine lawyer. Gloss kept talking to a Marvell engineer and an intellectual property lawyer in a conversation that touched on theft of trade secrets and the unlawful hiring of Jasmine engineers, according to a description in an appeals court ruling.
Marvell recently lost a motion seeking to keep the recording out of evidence, according to the Recorder.
