Carolyn H. Luedtke

For Luedtke, it’s been the Year of Injunctions.

In high demand by clients fighting to protect valuable intellectual property assets, Luedtke has recently scored a string of temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions in a variety of trade secret matters. Luedtke represented Intel Corp. in obtaining temporary restraining orders and later preliminary injunctions against former employees who allegedly stole Intel’s trade secrets when they left the company.

In both cases, Luedtke was able to persuasively show the court that the employees had not only absconded with company secrets, but had done so knowingly. Intel Corp. v. Rivers, 18-CV03061 (E.D. Cal., filed Nov. 27, 2018)

“I think for a lot of my clients, their main assets are in their trade secrets. So when someone leaves, they’ll want to check for any red flags that might indicate wrongdoing,” Luedtke said.

Luedtke is also leading a Munger, Tolles & Olson team in defense of Intel in a lawsuit accusing the company and its executives of theft of trade secrets. Nagui Mankaruse claimed Intel had misappropriated CPU cooling technology he said was shared with the company in due diligence conversations nearly a decade earlier.

Intel won several successive demurrers against Mankaruse, and last month the court entered judgment in favor of Intel on all causes of action.

Mankaruse has submitted a challenge to the ruling in the California Court of Appeal, with Luedtke at the helm of Intel’s defense of its lower court win. Mankaruse v. Intel Corporation, G056143 (4th App., March 9, 2018)

While she’s certainly gained a reputation for swift victories for TROs, Luedtke said it’s an evolution in her practice spurred more by client need than by design. She’s not sure if the recent surge in the work is a trend or just a coincidence.

“A lot of my practice is just counseling. Some of our greatest successes we’re able to solve without going to court. A lot of them have been solved privately with cease and desists,” Luedtke said. “This year, we weren’t able to resolve as many behind the scenes.”

Either way, she’s happy to have the fast-paced nature of the work, particularly at trial.

“It’s very engaging to me, a lot of things need to be done very quickly,” Luedtke said. “It keeps the adrenaline pumping.”

— Steven Crighton