ClearOne Wins Almost $10 Million Judgement Against Biamp
A federal court issued a Memorandum Decision and Order on April 21 in favor of ClearOne Communications, Inc., awarding it approximately $9.7 million in joint-and-several and individual judgments against Biamp Systems Corporation and a group called WideBand Solutions, Inc. – three of WideBand’s principals – Dr. Jun Yang (a former ClearOne employee), Andrew Chiang (previously affiliated with an entity that sold certain assets to ClearOne), and Lonny Bowers; and a company owned primarily by Yang, named Versatile DSP, Inc.. In addition, the court adopted and upheld the jury’s finding that all defendants had acted willfully and maliciously in misappropriating ClearOne’s trade secrets, and awarded exemplary damages against each of the defendants.
The Final Order was issued in the case, which was presented to a jury in October and November 2008, brought claims for, among other things, theft of ClearOne’s trade secrets. On November 5, 2008, the jury returned a unanimous verdict in the Intellectual Property Case in favor of ClearOne and against all of the defendants, awarding ClearOne millions of dollars in damages, and finding that all of the defendants willfully and maliciously misappropriated ClearOne’s trade secrets.