HID Global Corp. was recently awarded $45 million from a federal jury after it ruled Vector Flow infringed on a patent for security system management and stole trade secrets.
According to a verdict sheet in U.S. District Court in Delaware, posted by Bloomberg Law, the jurors awarded HID – a division of Assa Abloy – $38.9 million for the misappropriation and $6.1 million in lost profits. The jury unanimously agreed that both the alleged theft and infringement were intentional.
A verdict sheet shows Vector Flow was assessed $19.9 million in damages, Ajay Jain and Vik Ghai $7.5 million each, and Sean Sharma $4 million. Jain is currently President and CEO of Vector Flow, Ghai is vice president and Chief Technology Officer, and Sharma is Vice President of Engineering. Among other things, HID alleged in its 116-page complaint filed in 2022 that Vector Flow infringed Physical Identity Access Management (PIAM) patent.
The complaint said Jain, Ghai and Sharma profited from HID’s acquisition of their former company Quantum Secure, gained or maintained access to HID’s trade secrets and confidential Information and “misused” the information to operate Vector Flow in direct competition with HID.
HID purchased the assets of Quantum Secure in 2015. Jain was the CEO of the company at that time and Jain and Ghai were co-founders. Quantum Secure was a leading provider of software solutions for managing identities, access compliance and provisioning access within physical security infrastructure. HID Global said at the time the acquisition would enhance its ability to deliver an end-to-end identity management solution.
The lawsuit alleged Jain, Ghai and Sharma became HID employees and a condition of the acquisition was them signing non-compete and non-solicitation agreements. A few years later Jain and Ghai resigned and founded Vector Flow in 2019, with Sharma joining them in 2020.
“We are grateful to the jury for this verdict,” HID said in a statement. “We do not pursue legal action simply for the sake of being litigious. Instead, we strategically pursue IP cases if the infringement negatively impacts our customers, our employees, and our industry. This strategy is exemplified by the decision in the Vector Flow case.”
