Appian Awarded $2.036 Billion in Damages Against Pegasystems Inc.
PR95916
MCLEAN, Va., May 11, 2022 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --
- Appian receives verdict from Fairfax County, Virginia jury holding
Pegasystems liable for trade secret misappropriation and violation of the
Virginia Computer Crimes Act
Appian (NASDAQ: APPN) announced today that it has received a verdict from a
jury in the Circuit Court for Fairfax County, Virginia, awarding it $2.036
billion in damages from Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ: PEGA) for trade secret
misappropriation. The jury also found that Pegasystems violated the Virginia
Computer Crimes Act. The jury further found Pegasystems' misappropriation of
Appian's trade secrets to be willful and malicious. Appian brought the case to
trial to ensure the protection of its proprietary intellectual property,
including its trade secrets.
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"We are very grateful that the jury held Pegasystems accountable for its
wrongful conduct," stated Christopher Winters, General Counsel at Appian. "We
put forward strong evidence that Appian trade secrets were misappropriated by
Pegasystems. The award of substantial damages to Appian is entirely appropriate
given the nature and extent of what Pegasystems did."
During the seven-week trial, Appian presented evidence that Pegasystems hired
an employee of a government contractor (the "Contractor"), to provide
Pegasystems with access to Appian's software as a part of an effort to learn
how to better compete against Appian. In hiring the Contractor, Pegasystems
instructed its third-party contracting service to recruit someone who was not
"loyal" to Appian. Appian provided evidence that the Contractor, who worked as
a developer in the Appian software under a government contract, violated his
employer's code of conduct and his employer's agreement with Appian by
providing access to an Appian competitor.
Appian put forward evidence that the Contractor passed trade secret information
to Pegasystems to enable its employees to build competitive features and train
Pegasystems' sales team to better compete against Appian. During the
proceedings, Alan Trefler, Pegasystems' Founder and CEO, admitted that it was
"inappropriate'' for Pegasystems employees to have hired the Contractor, and
that the Contractor "apparently did things for which he was not entitled."
The Contractor, referred to as a "spy" internally at Pegasystems, helped
Pegasystems generate dozens of video recordings of the Appian development
environment for use by Pegasystems in compiling competitive materials and
evaluating improvements to its platform. Appian put forward evidence that Mr.
Trefler attended and participated in a meeting with the Contractor and received
Appian's trade secrets supplied by the Contractor. The videos and documents
created in connection with Contractor's efforts were then used by Pegasystems
to train its sales force to better compete against Appian. The effort was later
labeled "Project Crush" within Pegasystems. At one point, a Pegasystems
employee reviewing the materials exclaimed that "we should never lose to Appian
again!"
Appian also submitted that Pegasystems' product development team reviewed the
materials provided by the Contractor and changed the course of Pegasystems'
product engineering to take advantage of the Appian technology they saw.
Specifically, Appian put forward documents and testimony that Pegasystems made
use of the trade secrets gleaned from the Contractor to make improvements with
respect to, among other things, ease of use, and social and mobile capabilities
in the Pegasystems platform.
In addition, Appian presented undisputed evidence that Pegasystems employees
used false identities to obtain access to Appian information and trial versions
of Appian's software, which were then used for competitive purposes. Mr.
Trefler himself admitted to using an alias, "Albert Skii" to obtain access to
Appian information. One Pegasystems employee admitted to creating a fake
persona and a company to fool Appian into providing him with access to Appian's
software platform. Other Pegasystems employees obtained access to Appian's
software through Pegasystems' partners in India, using credentials provided to
those partners under license. Mr. Trefler admitted that he did not think it was
appropriate "for people to access other company's systems through aliases" and
that the Pegasystems employees who gained access to Appian trial software
"shouldn't have done it."
Appian believes that the damages award by the jury is the largest award in
Virginia state court history.
Appian's CEO, Matthew Calkins, stated "Appian will never hesitate to defend
itself and its intellectual property from competitors where it believes they
have acted illegally. I am proud of our legal team for their outstanding work
on this case. It was a masterful performance and the jury's verdict is the
result of their efforts."
Appian was represented in the case by Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler, led by
Adeel Mangi, Muhammad Faridi, and Jeff Ginsberg, and by Holmes Costin & Marcus,
led by Ellen Marcus and Sheila Costin. John McNichols, of Williams and
Connolly, also appeared in the case on behalf of Appian. Christopher Geyer,
Appian's Deputy General Counsel for IP & Litigation, played a lead role in
developing the case and managed the litigation from an in-house perspective.
The jury's finding that Pegasystems' conduct was willful and malicious may
entitle Appian to a further award of attorney's fees under Virginia law.
The jury's verdict and the court's entry of judgment is subject to appeal by
Pegasystems. Pegasystems is not required to pay Appian the amount awarded by
the jury until all appeals are exhausted and the judgment is final. Appian
cannot predict the outcome of any appeals or the time it will take to resolve
them.
About Appian
Appian is the unified platform for change. We accelerate customers' businesses
by discovering, designing, and automating their most important processes. The
Appian Low-Code Platform combines the key capabilities needed to get work done
faster, Process Mining + Workflow + Automation, in a unified low-code platform.
Appian is open, enterprise-grade and trusted by industry leaders. For more
information, visit www.appian.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release includes forward-looking statements. All statements
contained in this press release other than statements of historical facts,
including statements regarding Appian's ability to collect on the judgment and
to receive attorney's fees, the outcome of any appeal, and the timing of such
matters, are forward-looking statements. The words "anticipate," "believe,"
"continue," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "will," and similar
expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These
forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties,
including the risks and uncertainties set forth in the "Risk Factors" section
of Appian's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021
filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 17, 2022 and
other reports that Appian has filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. Appian is under no duty to update any of these forward-looking
statements after the date of this press release to conform these statements to
actual results or revised expectations, except as required by law.
SOURCE Appian
For Information Contact: Investor Contact, Srinivas Anantha, CFA, +1
703-442-8844, sri.anantha@appian.com; Media Contact, Ben Farrell, +1
703-442-1067, ben.farrell@appian.com
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