Federal Circuit on Trade Secret Remedies in AMS-OSRAM v. Renesas

by Dennis Crouch

The Federal Circuit issued a significant trade secret remedies decision AMS-OSRAM USA Inc. v. Renesas Electronics America, Inc., Nos. 2022-2185, 2022-2186 (Fed. Cir. Apr. 4, 2025). The court made a number of holdings (applying Texas trade secrecy law), most notably:

1. A trade secret becomes “properly accessible” when it could have been reverse-engineered rather than when it actually was reverse-engineered – limiting the appropriate “head-start period” for calculating damages; and
2. But, disgorgement of profits is proper for all sales arising from a misappropriation-based “design win” that occurred during the head-start period, even if actual sales occurred later;
3. A plaintiff may recover damages for both trade secret misappropriation and breach of contract when the damages are based on different sales or injuries.