9th Circuit Dockets Cisco's Trade Secrets Misappropriation Appeal vs. Poly

The 9th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court docketed Cisco’s appeal Friday of the March 22 order of the Northern District of California granting summary judgment for defendants Poly and its hardware and software architect Wilson Chung against Cisco’s allegations that they misappropriated two Cisco trade secrets. Appellant Cisco’s mediation questionnaire is due Friday, said the 9th Circuit’s time schedule order (docket 23-15590). Cisco’s opening brief is due July 28, and the answering brief from appellees Poly and Chung is due a month later, said the order. Cisco’s reply brief is due 21 days after service of the appellees’ brief, it said. Cisco alleges that Chung resigned in February 2019 to go work for Poly a month later, and that he took Cisco’s trade secrets on his way out the door and shared them with Poly. Two allegedly stolen trade secrets with exotic names are at issue in the 9th Circuit, as they were in the district court. The codename Project Sunkist was for a Bluetooth wireless headset with a voice microphone, and ultimately was released as the Cisco 730 headset. Project Polaris was for a videoconferencing desktop product, and ultimately was released as the Webex Desk Pro. The March 22 order granting summary judgment for Chung and Poly, signed by U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton for Northern California in Oakland, said Cisco “appears to be relying on speculation” that Chung not only shared trade secrets with Poly in the past but may also do so in the future. If trade secrets “had indeed been shared, there would be evidence on Poly’s systems,” said the order. “There being none in the record, Cisco cannot simply seek to fill in the blanks with speculation.”