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Alifax Holding S.p.a. prevailed over its competitor Alcor Scientific, Inc. and Mr. Francesco Frappa in the USA: a jury awarded $6.5 million dollars in damages (n. 14-440)

9 May 2019

In 2014, the Client Alifax – supported by the Italian law firm GLP – started a civil action in the federal court in Rhode Island against its former employee, Mr. Francesco Frappa, and its competitor, Alcor Scientific, for misappropriation of trade secrets. These secrets – which include both software and hardware components – enabled Alifax to build the first automated ESR (Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate) analyzer that is able to obtain reliable results in only 20 seconds. No other manufacturer had been able to match this result until Alcor Scientific suddenly entered the market in 2012 with its own automated ESR analyzer after recruiting Alifax's former employee, Mr. Francesco Frappa, to become Alcor’s Vice President of Research & Development.

The case was heard in a three-week trial in Providence, Rhode Island, by Chief Judge William E. Smith and ten jurors. In their verdict on May 2, 2019, the jury awarded Alifax $6.5 million in damages. The jury also found Alcor and Frappa to have acted willfully and maliciously in taking the Alifax trade secrets. They also found that Frappa had breached his confidential relationship with Alifax.

This important result was achieved thanks to the long collaboration between the Alifax Team (led by Dr. Paolo Galiano, CEO & Founder, Ms. Manuela Rossetto, Mr. Giovanni Battista Duic and Mr. Davide Chilin) and the GLP Team (coordinated by the co-Managing Partner Davide Luigi Petraz and supported by attorney Elisa Bozzi).

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