Major win for employee rights and the life sciences industry as court ends Medidata's moves to stifle innovation and free flow of talent
NEW YORK and PLEASANTON, Calif. , July 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York has dismissed the trade secret misappropriation lawsuit filed by Medidata, a Dassault Systèmes company, against Veeva Systems (NYSE: VEEV). Midway through the jury trial, the judge ended the proceedings and rejected the suit, finding that Medidata was unable to substantiate its claims against Veeva. The ruling is an important move in the protection of employee and customer rights as the case represented an attempt to limit competition and the free flow of talent with unfounded trade secret claims.
The Honorable Jed Rakoff, federal district judge since 1996 and adjunct professor at Columbia Law School and NYU Law School, noted in his July 15 ruling:
"…to the extent that [Medidata's] case rests on allegations regarding specific trade secrets that were misappropriated, they have failed to make their case." He went on to state, "I think a more general problem with [Medidata's] case is they seem to think that just about anything in the world can be a trade secret. And that, of course, would mean that you could never hire away an employee from another company because anything they said — one word out of their mouth — would indirectly reveal something they had learned at their prior employment…and both the...
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