LSI Corporation v. Gunnam CA6

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

A. Gunnam’s employment with LSI According to its complaint, LSI is a Santa Clara-based corporation that designs semiconductor and software solutions for accelerated storage and networking in data centers, mobile networks, and client computing. In January 2008, LSI hired Gunnam as a development design engineer. Prior to joining LSI, Gunnam was a Ph.D. student and employee at Texas A&M University, focusing on low-density parity check code decoders (LDPC), an error-correcting technology used in connection with the transmission of digital information that allows electronic devices to transmit digital information at higher speeds and with greater accuracy. As a condition of his employment with LSI, Gunnam signed an employee invention and confidential information agreement (agreement) on January 21, 2008. Among other things, the agreement provided: “Confidentiality. Except as authorized by the Company in writing, I agree to keep confidential and not to disclose, or make any use of, either during or subsequent to my employment, all inventions, trade secrets, proprietary or confidential information, works of authorship or proprietary matter that…