LAWFUEL – Trade Secrets News – Jenner & Block recently secured a dismissal of a trade secrets lawsuit brought against aerospace and defense company BAE Systems, Inc. and its subsidiary BAE Systems Applied Technologies Inc. in connection with contracts for an United States Navy program.
Rex Systems, Inc. had sued BAE Systems in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia alleging that BAE Systems had misappropriated the company’s technical engineering drawings of a ship and aircraft identification system in order to complete its contract with the Navy to update that system’s maintenance manual. Rex Systems also alleged that BAE Systems had conspired with the Navy to deprive the company of future contracts by excluding it from the list of suppliers in the resulting manual.
The Firm argued that the suit ought to be dismissed because Rex Systems failed to include the Navy in the lawsuit as an additional defendant. Each claim made by Rex Systems directly implicated the Navy’s and the U.S. Government’s rights in data from the identification system and the “nation’s interests in optimal functioning” of the system, the Firm noted in its motion to dismiss.
The court agreed with the Firm’s arguments and dismissed the action against BAE Systems, noting in its opinion that the Navy is a “necessary and indispensable party” to the resolution of the matter.
The Jenner & Block team working on this matter included Partners J. Alex Ward and Julie Carpenter, and Associates Caroline Lewis Wolverton and Luke C. Platzer.
