Walmart v. Cuker Interactive, LLC. W.D. Ark. No. 5:14-cv-5262-TLB.
After two weeks of a jury trial in federal court in Fayetteville, Arkansas, a unanimous jury returned a $12.4 million dollar verdict in favor of our client, Cuker Interactive, LLC on claims of misappropriation of trade secrets and computer coding know-how. The case began with a breach of contract claim filed by Walmart in the retailer’s hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas. The original contract was for Cuker to redesign and bring cutting-edge "responsive" website technology to a multi-million dollar grocery website operated by Walmart's division in the United Kingdom known as ASDA. Cuker was required to design only 13 templates but bent under extreme pressure by Walmart's project managers to produce nearly 60 templates. Several witnesses testified that Walmart's employee secretly downloaded computer code while at Cuker's headquarters without authority and later sent much of Cuker's trade secrets to various locations across the globe, including India for quick insertion into training programs. The jury took less than one full day to return a verdict finding Walmart's behavior constituted "willful and malicious" trade secret misappropriation.
Arkansasbusiness.com Reporting
"Last month a federal jury in Fayetteville ordered Wal-Mart to pay $12.4 million for damages that included willful and malicious misappropriation of Cuker's confidential information and trade secrets. The verdict didn't end the dispute. Last week, one of Cuker's attorneys, Mark M. Henry of Fayetteville, asked the judge to prevent Wal-Mart from using Cuker's code in any of its websites. Henry is also seeking sanctions against Wal-Mart's attorneys for what he alleges was abuse of the discovery process."