Tag: Zunum Aero

A federal judge in Seattle has sided with Boeing and is throwing out a jury verdict that called for the aerospace giant to pay $72 million to Zunum Aero, a Seattle-area aviation startup it once supported.

In an statement emailed to me after the judge made his ruling, Boeing said it was “grateful for the court’s careful and thorough consideration of all the evidence at trial to reach this decision.”

Zunum took a different view: “We are disappointed by the court’s decision to overturn the jury’s carefully considered and well-supported verdict,” the Bothell, Wash-based company said in an emailed statement. “We intend to appeal the court’s order and to reinstate the jury’s verdict.”

Zunum’s goal was to develop hybrid electric airplanes that it said could reinvigorate regional air transport. In 2017, the company forged a partnership with Boeing, and Boeing made $9 million in loans to Zunum. But the startup wasn’t able to gain traction and ended up suspending operations in 2019.

In its lawsuit, Zunum alleged that Boeing misappropriated its trade secrets and interfered with its efforts to bring in more investment from companies associated with Safran, a different aerospace company. At the end of an eight-day trial in May, a nine-member jury backed most of Zunum’s claims — but after the verdict, District Judge James Robart reviewed the case in response to Boeing’s post-trial challenges.

Robart’s ruling, issued today, sided with Boeing’s challenges. The judge wrote that Zunum didn’t provide sufficient evidence that the pieces of information it shared with Boeing about its technology could truly be considered trade secrets. He also agreed with Boeing that Zunum “failed to provide substantial evidence that Zunum had a valid business expectancy with Safran,” and did not suffer harm due to any interference from Boeing.

A federal jury in Seattle says Boeing owes an unsuccessful electric-aviation startup called Zunum Aero $72 million for misappropriating trade secrets and interfering with its business plans.

Some of that amount could be tripled if the judge determines that the misappropriation was willful and malicious.

“Zunum Aero’s founders and other shareholders are pleased that the company had the opportunity to prove its case, and that the jury agreed,” Scott Danner of the law firm Holwell Shuster & Goldberg, lead counsel for Zunum, said in a statement. “After years of fighting, the jury’s verdict is a tremendous vindication.”

Boeing said it would challenge the judgment. “Boeing respectfully disagrees with the jury’s verdict, which is not supported by the law or the facts,” the company said.