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In a case that should stand as a strong reminder to apportion your damages whenever possible, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a significant post‑trial ruling in Trinseo Europe GmbH v. Harper, et al., upholding the district court's decision to vacate a $75 million jury verdict for trade secret misappropriation. 2026 WL 160524 (5th Cir. Jan. 21, 2026). Although the jury found that the defendants misappropriated four of the ten trade secrets Trinseo asserted, the appellate court agreed that Trinseo's damages model—predicated on misappropriation of all ten alleged trade secrets—left the jury without any legally sufficient basis to apportion damages to the specific secrets actually found misappropriated. Without that foundation, the multimillion‑dollar award could not stand.
The dispute arose from Trinseo's allegations that several defendants, including KBR, misappropriated various trade secrets related to polycarbonate production in violation of the Defend Trade Secrets Act. Before trial, KBR moved to exclude Trinseo's damages expert, arguing that the expert failed to apportion damages between misappropriated and non‑misappropriated features of the technology. Although the district court allowed the testimony, it expressly warned that Trinseo's "all‑or‑nothing" approach would be "totally undermined" unless Trinseo obtained a verdict on all ten trade secrets. Id. at *3, *14. Trinseo nonetheless presented a damages model that bundled all ten trade secrets together without providing the jury any methodology to assign value to each one individually.
After the jury awarded more than $75 million in reasonable royalty and unjust enrichment damages, the district court granted judgment as a matter of law, concluding that Trinseo's failure to apportion damages—paired with the jury's decision not to find all ten secrets misappropriated—was "fatal" to the verdict. Id. at *4. The Fifth Circuit affirmed, emphasizing that trade secret damages—like patent damages—must "reflect the value attributable to the infringing features of the product, and no more." Id. at *6. Where a plaintiff alleges multiple secrets, the jury must be provided a reasonable, non‑speculative basis to apportion value to the specific secrets actually proven at trial.
Beyond damages, the Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court's permanent injunction barring defendants from using Trinseo's trade secrets and agreed that Trinseo's alternative "confidential information" claims are preempted by the Texas Uniform Trade Secrets Act. The court also affirmed the denial of Trinseo's request for a new trial on damages. But the court's focal point was clear: damages must be grounded in evidence that ties the monetary award to the particular secrets misappropriated—not to the universe of information a plaintiff hopes to prove. If the plaintiff instead offers a single, bundled number that assumes every alleged secret was misappropriated, the jury has no reasonable, non‑speculative way to award damages limited to the secrets actually proven—and any such award is vulnerable to being vacated.
The decision reinforces a critical takeaway for plaintiffs: parties must ensure whenever possible that their experts valuate each alleged trade secret or provide a methodology for juries to calculate the value of a trade secret or group of trade secrets to withstand post‑trial scrutiny. As the Fifth Circuit's ruling makes clear, an "all‑or‑nothing" approach may ultimately leave a prevailing plaintiff with nothing at all.
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