Appian (NASDAQ: APPN) has announced that the Supreme Court of Virginia has agreed to hear its petition seeking to reinstate the $2.036 billion judgment against Pegasystems, Inc. The petition raised four different errors made by the Court of Appeals and seeks to restore the jury's verdict of willful and malicious trade secret misappropriation.
The unanimous verdict from the jury was based on seven weeks of testimony from dozens of witnesses and thousands of pages of evidence introduced to show that Pegasystems employed a "spy" to analyze the inner workings of Appian’s software, improve its own product, and generate billions of dollars in revenue based on its misappropriation.
Christopher Winters, the general counsel of Appian, expressed that they are encouraged by the Supreme Court of Virginia's decision to review the case. The Supreme Court has also agreed to hear Pega’s cross-appeal issues, which presented arguments regarding the sufficiency of the evidence of trade secret misappropriation. The Virginia jury found Pegasystems violated the Virginia Computer Crimes Act, and Pegasystems declined to appeal that ruling below, meaning that the violation remains confirmed and final.
The petition will be subject to further briefing and argument in front of the Supreme Court of Virginia, and the outcome of any appeals or the time it will take to resolve them remains uncertain. As a result of these announcements, the company's shares have moved 2.6% on the market, and are now trading at a price of $32.03. Check out the company's full 8-K submission here.
