🔒Federal jury awards Yale, Biohaven $4M in lawsuit over...

Case Summary

A federal jury awarded $4 million to Yale University and Biohaven Therapeutics Ltd. in a lawsuit alleging trade secret misappropriation.

Parties Involved

• Plaintiffs: Yale University and Biohaven Therapeutics Ltd.
• Defendants: RA Capital Management GP LLC, Avilar Therapeutics, and Avilar co-founder Milind Deshpande

Confidential Information

The lawsuit centers on confidential information related to Yale's Molecular Degrader of Extracellular Proteins (MODA) platform, developed by Yale researcher David Spiegel.

Trade Secrets Claims

• Claim A7: A roadmap for designing more effective MODA molecules
• Claim B8: A roadmap for developing an oral therapy using MODA molecules and MODA technology

Jury Verdict

The jury found RA Capital Management, Avilar Therapeutics, and Milind Deshpande liable for trade secret misappropriation and awarded $2 million to Yale and $1 million to Biohaven for trade secret misappropriation.

Specific Findings

• RA Capital breached the confidentiality agreement with Yale
• Yale and Biohaven proved Claim A7 was a trade secret
• B8 was not proven to be a trade secret
• RA Capital willfully and maliciously misappropriated a Yale trade secret