IP Litigation Team Achieves Hard-Fought Victories for Life Sciences Client

Dechert won two IP litigation cases for client Conagen against Givaudan – as both plaintiff and defendant – in a trial that encompassed six cases, five parties, four years, three courts and two states.

Phyto Tech Corp., d/b/a Blue California and Conagen Inc. are synthetic biology clients. Blue California and Givaudan, a Swiss manufacturer of flavors and fragrances, formed a joint venture called BGN Tech LLC in 2014 to arrange for the sharing of intellectual property and the sale of ingredients for flavors and fragrances from Blue California and Conagen to Givaudan.

In the first legal action, Blue California and Conagen claimed Givaudan took confidential information and gave it to a third party. The Court agreed that Givaudan’s activities breached the confidentiality provisions of the joint venture agreement and ruled in favor of Conagen and Blue California.

“Our clients were very pleased with the outcome and that Givaudan’s breach was recognized by the Court, given the paramount importance of confidentiality in the flavors and fragrance industry,” says partner Kassie Helm, who co-led Dechert’s trial team with Martin Black.

In a second case, Givaudan sued Conagen and sought the return of its multi-million-dollar investment in the company. Givaudan argued that Conagen failed to negotiate in good faith regarding a term sheet concerning IP licensing rights between the parties. The Court ruled in favor of Conagen, finding Givaudan was entitled to no relief on its contractual and equitable claims.