International Medical Devices, Inc. v. Cornell et al., Nos. 2025-1580, 2025-1605 (Fed. Cir. Apr. 17, 2026)

Beck Redden secured a complete appellate victory for client Richard Finger, a Houston businessman and venture capitalist who provided seed capital and financial advice to the inventors of a new medical device, exonerating him from all liability in this high-stakes trade secrets dispute. Plaintiffs sued Finger and several other defendants in the Central District of California (No. 2:20-cv-03503-CBM-RAO). They alleged misappropriation of four asserted trade secrets, which they claimed had been shared with Dr. Robert Cornell under a nondisclosure agreement during a 2018 surgical training. Dr. Cornell denied their allegations and insisted that the four asserted trade secrets were not “secrets” because they were all matters of common knowledge in the relevant field.

A jury found liability across the board. This led to a district court judgment imposing millions in reasonable royalties and exemplary damages on Finger and the other defendants, plus a permanent injunction. On appeal to the Federal Circuit, partner Russell S. Post coordinated the defendants’ overall appellate strategy and argued successfully for Richard Finger, dismantling the case entirely. The court overturned the jury verdict, holding that the plaintiffs failed to prove any of the asserted trade secrets was entitled to protection under California law: three design ideas had been disclosed decades earlier in public patents, and an instrument list had been shared without confidentiality protections. On that basis, the court vacated the entire judgment for misappropriation of trade secrets–including the royalties, the exemplary damages, and the injunction–and rejected the plaintiffs’ patent inventorship claims related to the new medical device.

Our client walked away with no exposure, a clean sweep reversing a potentially catastrophic judgment that had grown (with interest) to more than $20 million. As Russell Post explained: “This decision vindicates Mr. Finger’s understanding, from the very beginning, that he was providing venture capital and financial advice for a lawful new competing enterprise.”  This outcome, driven by rigorous prior-art analysis and appellate precision on an accelerated schedule, reinforces Beck Redden’s track record of appellate wins in cutting-edge IP cases.