Bienert Katzman Littrell Williams LLP scored a complete victory at trial for its client Nathan Boulais, who had been accused of violating, and conspiring with others to violate, the federal civil RICO statute based on the alleged theft of trade secrets.  Plaintiffs Skye Orthobiologics LLC and Human Regenerative Technologies, LLC claimed that a former Skye executive, Brian Banman, stole proprietary information to start a competing company, CTM Biomedical, Inc.  The plaintiffs accused Mr. Boulais, an experienced independent sales representative who had sold both Skye’s products and CTM’s products, of conspiring with Mr. Banman and others to steal the plaintiffs’ trade secrets and use them to start and grow CTM.

In his opening statement, BKLW Partner Michael R. Williams told the jury the evidence would show that “there is no such thing as Skye’s customers.”  After a six-day jury trial before the Hon. Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong of the U.S District Court for the Central District of California, the jury agreed, returning a full defense verdict on all claims against Mr. Boulais.  The jury specifically found that neither Mr. Boulais nor any of his co-defendants stole or otherwise misappropriated any of the plaintiffs’ alleged trade secrets and that none of them either violated RICO or conspired to do so.  

“Nate Boulais never should have been named as a defendant in this case, and we are gratified the jury recognized that the claims against him had no merit,” said BKLW Partner Mike Williams, Mr. Boulais’s lead counsel.  “We are thrilled that Nate can go back to focusing on what he does best—working closely with doctors to give patients access to cutting-edge medical devices.” 

In addition to Mike, the BKLW trial team included attorney Carlos A. Nevarez and paralegal Leah Thompson.

Learn more:

• Read the Daily Journal’s coverage of the first day of trial: Accusations of “greed’ and ‘revenge’ start trade secrets trial (subscription required).
• Learn more about BKLW’s complex civil litigation practice and our team.