White & Case Secures Trade Secret Litigation Victory for Carl Zeiss Meditec, Inc. in the Northern District of California

Global law firm White & Case LLP has secured a crucial judgment in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California for Carl Zeiss Meditec, Inc. (CZMI) by securing an injunction for trade secret misappropriation and breach of contract against Topcon Medical Systems, Topcon Healthcare and one of its employees. 

"This injunction is a significant victory for CZMI," said White & Case partner Bijal Vakil, who led the matter. "As a result of this, competitors cannot reverse-engineer, copy or 'knock off' CZMI's market-leading FORUM platform, instruments and software solutions without violating CZMI's significant intellectual property protections."

CZMI accused Topcon of recruiting a series of ex-CZMI employees in 2018 and 2019 to work for its software subsidiary, Topcon Healthcare. CZMI alleged that Topcon stole CZMI trade secrets and confidential information in order to develop competing, "knockoff" ophthalmic software products that aimed to steal market share from CZMI's market-leading FORUM data management platform, which enables clinicians to diagnose and manage serious eye diseases such as glaucoma.

CZMI sought injunctive relief to stop Topcon from retaining, using or disseminating CZMI confidential documents and to prevent the release of Topcon's Harmony Glaucoma Module, which Topcon announced was being released in the US in February 2021.   

The White & Case IP team in Silicon Valley was led by partner Bijal Vakil and counsel Jeremy Elman, and included associates Henry Huang, Jonathan Klaren and DeMarcus Williams.

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