Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. convinced an Ohio federal judge to throw out a $64 million jury verdict over its alleged theft of trade secrets related to self-inflating tires.
U.S. District Judge Sara Lioi said most of the trade secrets that Czech company Coda Development SRO accused Goodyear of stealing were too vague to be legally protected.
An attorney for Coda said the company was disappointed with the decision and plans to appeal.
A spokesperson for Goodyear said on April 3 that the company agrees with the decision and “respects the intellectual property rights of others.”
Coda sued Akron, Ohio-based Goodyear in 2015, and said in an amended 2019 complaint that Goodyear copied Coda CEO Frantisek Hrabal’s technology to keep tires inflated with an internal tube, after discussing a potential collaboration in 2009 for General Motors Co’s Chevy Volt….