Goodyear Keeps Trade-Secret Win Challenged at Federal Circuit

The Federal Circuit said Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. is off the hook in a 10-year-old suit where it stood accused of stealing self-inflating tire technology belonging to Czech inventor Frantisek Hrabal.

An Ohio federal court was right to throw out a $64 million verdict in favor of Hrabal and his company Coda Developments S.R.O. because the five trade secrets asserted in the dispute were impermissibly vague, not used by Goodyear, or, in one instance, not a trade secret at all, the appeals court said in a precedential opinion issued Monday.

The trade secret at the center of the appeal ...