Ford Wrongly Escaped $105 Million Verdict, Fed. Cir. Says (1)

Ford Motor Co. shouldn’t have avoided damages awarded in a $105 million jury verdict that it had stolen software that it had been licensing from Versata Software Inc., the Federal Circuit said Friday.

That award was improperly reduced to $3, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said, restoring an $82.3 million breach of contract award and ordering a new trial on trade secrets damages.

The lower court incorrectly found that insufficient evidence backed the contract damages, and wrongly held that unjust enrichment damages aren’t available when the parties had a licensing history, the opinion by Judge Todd ...