Labor & Employment Litigators Lead W.L. Gore to Victory in Trade Secrets Case

In a case receiving widespread national media attention for its rare circumstances, Faegre Baker Daniels client W.L. Gore & Associates' 10-year-long battle with a former employee who admitted to stealing trade secrets ended with a warrant for the defendant's arrest on April 7. Labor and employment litigation partners Chuck Knapp and Joel Schroeder represented Gore.

The former employee at issue, scientist Huey Shen Wu, admitted to stealing Gore trade secrets related to certain fluoropolymers in an action brought against him in 2004. That action led to the imposition of a 10-year injunction. The Delaware Chancery found that Wu had acted in contempt of the 10-year injunction in 2012, and ordered him to pay Gore $410,426 and remedy the misconduct. In March 2013, however, discovering that Wu had continued to violate the Court order, Gore brought another contempt action. Additional sanctions were sought, including an order requiring Wu to submit his passports and visas to the Court or face incarceration. He failed to comply, and a capias (bench warrant) was issued.

Knapp has represented Gore throughout the 10-year legal saga involving Wu, and he and Schroeder have represented Gore in contempt proceedings. The case and its outcome have been covered in media outlets around the country including Law360, Reuters, The Chicago Tribune, the Delaware News Journal, the New York Times the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek and the ABA Journal.