Boeing is asking the Ninth Circuit to hit the brakes on a $72 million jury award in a high-stakes trade secrets fight with a defunct electric jet startup. In a motion filed Thursday, the aerospace giant urged the appeals court to rehear its August ruling that reinstated the blockbuster damages award, warning that the panel’s decision created “confusion, conflict, and injustice.”
Boeing said the district court judge had carefully scrutinized Zunum Aero Inc.’s claims in a 53-page order and found them lacking. But the appellate panel overturned that ruling without even holding oral arguments, issuing an unpublished memorandum that Boeing now argues bypassed critical procedural safeguards.
Jurisdiction Fight and Standards of Review
Boeing contends the Ninth Circuit should not have had the case in the first place. Because Boeing filed counterclaims involving patent inventorship, the company insists the Federal Circuit — which handles patent appeals — should have exclusive jurisdiction.
Even if the Ninth Circuit keeps the case, Boeing says a rehearing is essential. The company accuses the panel of relaxing the rules around identifying trade secrets, allowing Zunum to proceed without “precisely defining the boundaries” of its alleged proprietary data. Boeing also says the panel engaged in a de novo review when it should have deferred to the district court’s discretion on post-trial motions.
