After four years of litigation, our IP litigators obtained a complete victory for Backer-Springfield (Backer) when the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware threw out a trade secret misappropriation action brought by Backer’s competitor, Zoppas Industries de Mexico, S.A. de C.V. (ZIM).  ZIM alleged that Backer improperly received confidential information concerning a ZIM heating element design from their mutual customer, and used the information to design a competing heating element and secure the customer’s business.  Backer insisted that its design was developed independently and without any ZIM confidential information.  The Court agreed, granting summary judgment and finding that ZIM “failed to produce any evidence that Backer acquired any ZIM trade secret” from the customer.  Backer is currently seeking an award of its attorneys’ fees.  The NGE team is made up of Kevin May, Tom Williams, John Koenigsknecht, and Dan Terhune.