Jury Unanimously Rules Telecommunications Corporation Did Not Hack Servers and Steal Trade Secrets

Foley Hoag LLP recently won a jury verdict for French telecommunications company Orange SA in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco. A unanimous federal jury rejected all claims of computer hacking and theft of trade secrets brought by now defunct San Francisco-based startup Telesocial Inc. Telesocial sought more than $60 million in damages at trial.

Orange was cleared of charges made by Telesocial that it hacked its servers and stole and misappropriated trade secrets. Foley Hoag attorneys, together with San Francisco-based firm Durie Tangri LLP, successfully argued that these allegations were unfounded.

Numerous witnesses traveled from France to present evidence to a California federal jury, which only awarded Telesocial nominal damages of $1 for breach of the “terms of use” associated with a publicly available web application.

“We are very pleased with the result of this case and proud of our work to defend Orange against very serious but unfounded and false allegations of hacking and theft,” said Daniel Schimmel, partner in Foley Hoag's International Litigation and Arbitration Department.

Foley Hoag’s considerable experience in representing major French and European companies in international litigation in the United States helped secure this victory.

The Foley Hoag team comprised attorneys from the firm's offices in the U.S. and France, including Schimmel, Anthony Mirenda, Amanda Hainsworth, Caroline Donovan, Melissa Stewart, Rebecca Gerome, Christopher Cifrino, Thomas Bevilacqua and Antoine Lerosier.

Telesocial was represented by Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP, backed by a third party litigation funding firm.