Kley

BACKGROUND

Appellants’ Relations with LLNL This 12-year-old saga has its genesis in inertial confinement fusion (ICF). ICF is a process involving the use of lasers to raise the temperature of hydrogen isotope fuel contained in very small target capsules to extremely high temperatures, in order to produce energy from nuclear fusion. One aspect of the ICF program is research and development of the very small target capsules—about 2000 microns in diameter—that contain the fuel for ICF experiments.1 LLNL had been doing research into ICF, with Dr. Robert Cook leading the group that developed the target capsules. Kley became increasingly interested in the field, and began collaborating with the group at LLNL. In Kley’s own words, this was the story of that collaboration—and its demise: “In the spring of 2004, General Nanotechnology, LLC (‘GN’) and Metadigm, LLC, (‘Metadigm’), two companies of which I was a principal, entered into discussions

1 Some of the background facts are taken from the opinion of Division Five in General Nanotechnology LLC v. Lawrence Livermore National Security LLC, supra, of which we take judicial notice. (Evid. Code, § 452, subd. (d); Taliaferro v. Taliaferro…