Multi-Million Dollar Verdict Against San Diego Defense Contractor General Atomics and Jury Verdict Rejecting Trade Secrets Counter-suit Banks v. General Atomics et al, Case Number 37-2009-00084081-CU-BC-CTL San Diego Superior Court, Department 67, Hon. William S. Dato, Judge Presiding

On November 22, 2011, following a six week trial, a downtown San Diego Superior Court jury returned a verdict against San Diego Defense contractor General Atomics, totaling $8.9 million dollars in favor of one of its former laser scientists Paul Banks. In a second phase of the trial, the jury also found that General Atomics acted with malice, oppression and/or fraud, assessing punitive damages of an additional $5.8 million.

Dr. Banks, who had voluntarily resigned from the company in 2008, prevailed on his claims that General Atomics, including its CEO and President Neal Blue, had promised him partial ownership in a new “Photonics” unit formed in 2000 to entice him to leave his job at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The jury found that the Company never intended to nor actually did fulfill that promise and breached a contract in doing so. In 2009, General Atomics transferred the Photonics unit to its sister company General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (ASI), also controlled by the Blue family, which manufactures the highly successful and lucrative Predator and Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

The jury rejected General Atomics’ $33 million counter-suit against Dr. Banks and his start-up company TetraVue based in Carlsbad, for alleged trade secret misappropriation. TetraVue is developing a 3-D laser imaging camera system intended for facial recognition, industrial surveying, and other commercial and consumer applications.