Fenwick & West v. Superior Court
Opinion
Opinion
Elia, J.
In this proceeding, petitioners Fenwick & West (Fen-wick) and Stanley Chao seek a writ of mandate following the denial of their request for return of property seized from their law offices during a criminal investigation of their client. Petitioners contend: (1) the affidavits on which the search warrants were based were not supported by probable cause; and (2) the search warrants were overbroad. We agree with petitioners’ first contention and grant the requested relief.
Background
On July 6, 1995, representatives of the Santa Clara County District Attorney served a search warrant at Qualop Systems, Inc. (Qualop), in the course of an investigation into suspected trade secret theft and sale of stolen technology to China and Taiwan. The alleged victim of the theft is Harmonic Lightwaves (Harmonic). The principal suspects are Abraham Jou, president of Qualop; Ching Ho, an officer; and Chien-Yu Kuo, an officer of Qualop and full-time employee of Harmonic. While at Qualop, investigators found records identifying Kuo as one of the founders of Optisys Corporation, a company which apparently had been acquired by Qualop and was its predecessor in interest.