The story has been told in several eras, with different characters and cultural adaptations, with equal and congruent results. The undersized and underestimated meets an entity greater than itself with an ego of equal proportion. Spoiler Alert: It doesn’t go as planned.

As the story goes, the undersized and underestimated David, citing King James Biblical retelling, meets the greater Goliath in a battle of epic proportion. Goliath is bigger, faster, and stronger. He is the undisputed champ in his field.

In case you were unaware, his field of choice is raining destruction on his adversaries. Thus, from the spectator’s point of view, David, equipped with his childish slingshot to battle, appears to have the wits of a man who brings ice to his girlfriend’s family potluck (read: poorly equipped for the occasion).

Yet, Goliath made a mistake. He never considered his weaknesses…his exposure; moreover, his ego blinded him to the realistic possibility that he …could lose. His mistake cost him his dearly.

The story was retold more recently in the legal arena when Altavion, Inc., (read: David), met with Konica Minolta Systems Laboratory, Inc. (read: Goliath), for the purchase and sale of Proprietary Software developed by Altavion, Inc. Spoiler Alert: It doesn’t go as planned.

As the story goes, the undersized and underestimated, Altavion, Inc., meets the greater Konica Minolta Systems Laboratory, Inc., in a battle of multi-million dollar proportions. Konica Minolta Systems Laboratory, Inc., is bigger, faster, and stronger; “a research and development subsidiary of a multinational corporation that, among other things, manufactures multifunction printers (also known as multifunction peripherals) (MFP’s) and other devices with printing, scanning, and copying functionalities.”

“Altavion, Inc., is a small company that invented a Treatment process for creating self-authenticating documents through the use of barcodes that contain encrypted data about the contents of the original documents. The trial court concluded that KMSL misappropriated trade secrets disclosed by Altavion during negotiations aimed at exploiting Altavion’s technology. The negotiations were subject to a nondisclosure agreement and centered around the possibility of embedding Altavion’s invention in one of KMSL’s MFP’s….

After the negotiations failed, Altavion discovered KMSL had filed for patents encompassing Altavion’s DST. Altavion brought suit and, following a bench trial, the trial court found KMSL misappropriated Altavion’s trade secrets — both Altavion’s DST concept as a whole and specific DST design concepts.”

After years of pretrial practice and trial procedure, the trial court awarded Altavion USD$ 1,000,000 damages, prejudgment interest of approximately USD $ 500,000, and attorney fees of approximately USD$ 3,300,000; A total damage award of almost USD $ 5,000,000. The court decision was upheld on appeal in 2014; see Altavion, Inc. v. Konica Minolta Systems Laboratory, Inc., 226 Cal.App.4th 26, 171 Cal.Rptr.3d 714 (2014).

Is your company operating on laurels or logistics? Are you assessing the risks of your legal operations from the perspective of Murphy’s law: “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong”? Or are you making the same Goliath multi-million-dollar mistake that Konica Minolta Systems Laboratory, Inc., made when it assessed its legal exposure and corresponding legal strategy and position?

If you are running a business without the full legal protection of trade secret laws and regulations, or without a competent and qualified attorney on retainer, you are exposing yourself to Goliath sized risks without David’s lethal and precise slingshot. Spoiler Alert: It doesn’t go as planned.

Please contact the Law Offices of Terance Orme today for a professional legal assessment of the risks and exposures of your business.