Jury Awards Kobre & Kim Client US $604.9 Million in Trade Secret Case

Propel Fuels, Inc. (“Propel”), a low-carbon fuel provider, was awarded victory by a jury in its trade secrets misappropriation case against Phillips 66 Company (“Phillips 66”) following a five-week trial in the Superior Court of California, County of Alameda, located in Oakland, California.

On October 16, 2024, the jury found that Phillips 66’s renewable fuels business was developed using Propel’s trade secrets in violation of California’s Uniform Trade Secrets Act and awarded unjust enrichment damages totaling US $604.9 million.

The jury also found Phillips 66’s misappropriation willful and malicious, meaning the Court may triple the total damages award. The verdict follows more than two years of pretrial proceedings and a trial that featured voluminous evidence and testimony from 31 witnesses, including ten expert witnesses.

In an interview with Law.com about the verdict, trial team leads Michael Ng and Daniel Zaheer of Kobre & Kim said: “Propel did what many innovators cannot do—it stood up to a much larger adversary and persevered through a long process to vindicate its rights.”

The lawsuit, filed on February 16, 2022, alleges that Philips 66 stole confidential data, proprietary strategies, and business intelligence developed by Propel over 13 years at a cost to Propel of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Michael Ng and Daniel Zaheer led the trial team, which also included Adriana Riviere-Badell, George Stamatopoulos, Jeremy Bressman, Paul Kanellopoulos, Zachary Ritz, Christen Martosella, Eden Benadiva, Jay Mandel, Kim Kennedy, Michael Fasano, Naomi Yang, Nicholas Ickovic, Steven Kobre, and Zachary Rosenbaum.

In addition to the interview in Law.com, Bloomberg, Reuters, and Law360, among numerous other media outlets, reported the verdict.

About Kobre & Kim

Kobre & Kim is a global law firm focusing on cross-border disputes and investigations, often involving fraud and misconduct.

Our Intellectual Property and Technology Disputes team:

• Focuses on serving as special trial co-counsel, avoiding conflicts that often prevent other firms from taking on the large-scale litigation and industry-wide opposition common in trade secret misappropriation cases
• Understands complex technology and can explain it to judges and juries – the ultimate decision-makers.
• Includes locally qualified lawyers in the United States, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and offshore locations, allowing us to effectively advocate for clients around the world and for those facing the challenges of coordinated international litigation.