Bourns, Inc. v. Raychem Corp.

Opinion by Judge NOONAN; Opinion concurring in part, dissenting in part by Judge PREGERSON.

*706 OPINION

Two cases have been consolidated in this appeal. In the first, Raychem Corporation (Raychem) sued Bourns, Inc. (Bourns) for misappropriating Raychem’s confidential information and trade secrets. This suit resulted in a jury verdict for Raychem, a remittur by Raychem, and a judgment in its favor, which Bourns appeals.

In the second case, Bourns sued Ray-chem for violation of the antitrust laws. At the end of two trials, a jury returned a verdict in Bourns’ favor but not as much as it expected. Bourns appeals various rulings in both trials. Raychem appeals the denial of its motion for judgment as a matter of law and the fee awarded Bourns’ counsel.

We set out each case in turn.

I. RAYCHEM’S MISAPPROPRIATIONS CASE.

FACTS

In the 1970’s, Raychem, a Delaware corporation engaged in the production of materials, began work on developing a device for controlling power surges. The work resulted in two layers of conductive foil surrounding a mixture of a nonconductive polymer and conductive carbon black. When current in the device becomes excessive, its lattice bonds break and stop…

concurring in part and dissenting in part:

I concur in the majority’s decision to affirm the jury’s determination that Bourns was liable for interfering with Raychem’s employment contracts and misappropriating Raychem’s trade secrets. But I dissent from the majority’s decision to reverse the jury’s verdict in favor of Bourns on its anti-trust claims against Raychem concerning its unlawful monopolization of the Polymeric Positive Temperature Coefficient (“PPTC”) market in violation of Walker Process Equipment, Inc. v. Food Machinery & Chemical Corp., 382 U.S. 172 , 86 S.Ct. 347 , 15 L.Ed.2d 247 *713 (1965) (hereinafter Walker Process), and Section 2 of the Sherman Act. First, the majority errs by reweighing the evidence presented to the jury regarding Raychem’s anti-trust liability and by reversing the jury’s determination that Raychem by threatening to enforce its fraudulently obtained patents against Bourns unlawfully thwarted Bourns’ effort to enter into the PPTC market. By doing so, the majority contravenes our rule that “the weight of the evidence[is an] issue[ ] for the jury that [is] generally not subject to appellate review.” Murray v. Laborers Union Local No. 324, 55 F.3d…