Ryan Tyz

Tyz Law Group PC

Larkspur; San Francisco

Intellectual Property Litigation, Copyright, Patent, Trade Secret, Trademark, Business, Antitrust

In the past year, Tyz was able to secure favorable outcomes for his clients after entering litigation fairly late in the game.

In one trade secrets case he came in four months before trial and won a defense verdict, while in another he revamped litigation strategy and filed a new complaint.

Tyz defended Ronnie Huang, a former employee of a tech giant seeking $85.7 million in damages, claiming he stole Huawei's trade secrets and urged its employees to join a start-up he helped find. Huawei Tech Co. v. Huang, 17-cv-893 (E.D. Texas, filed Dec. 28, 2017).

"They hired Ronnie to access his technology. Later he started his own company and they basically said they owned everything in his head," said Tyz.

Over the course of the 17-day trial, Tyz performed direct and cross examination of every witness for his case, and presented opening statements and closing arguments. In the end the jury returned a total defense verdict.

"It was a benefit coming in late and seeing the case at a 10,000 foot level," said Tyz.

In a case on behalf of cyber security company CrowdStrike, Tyz replaced Baker McKenzie as lead trial counsel. He filed a new complaint, rerouting the case by arguing NSS Labs Inc. fraudulently obtained access to CrowdStrike's products and skewed test results in favor of vendors who paid NSS for private testing services.

NSS countered by filing an antitrust CrowdStrike and other parties in Northern California federal court. However, both cases settled last summer. The settlement was confidential and included a public apology from CrowdStrike. CrowdStrike Inc. v. NSS Labs Inc., 17-cv-146-MN (D. Delaware, filed Feb. 10, 2017). NSS Labs Inc. v. CrowdStrike Inc., 5:18-cv-05711 (N.D. Cal., filed Sept. 18, 2018).

Tyz has been litigating cases for 15 years. He spent a decade at Fenwick & West before starting his own firm five years ago.

"One thing to do very early on is painting a picture at a very high level and then asking yourself, 'is it accurate and do you agree with it?'" said Tyz. "There is huge value in actually believing the position of your client. We are selective in who we work with," said Tyz.

-- Justin Kloczko