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GE and Siemens Settle Trade Secret Dispute Over Gas Turbines

GE and Siemens Settle Trade Secret Dispute Over Gas Turbines

Siemens Energy AG and General Electric Co. have resolved a hotly-fought battle over trade secrets related to gas-power turbines, according to a court filing.

Terms of the agreement weren’t disclosed in the filing, in which the companies asked that a lawsuit filed by GE against Siemens be dismissed. GE confirmed the settlement but didn’t provide any details. 

GE claimed that Siemens Energy used confidential information about GE’s gas turbines to help the German company’s U.S. unit unfairly win at least nine gas-turbine contracts that GE said were worth billions of dollars. GE claims confidential financial, business, technical and engineering information was taken.

Before the request to dismiss the case, GE was seeking an order that would limit who could work on other Siemens bid proposals for gas turbines.

Siemens said that GE was exaggerating the scope of information one of its account managers learned during the bidding process for a since-canceled project. The company said it fired certain employees, removed the information from its files and voluntarily notified GE about the breach.

The trade secrets battle follows a series of legal clashes between the two industrial giants over power-generation products that are key to each company’s product portfolio. 

GE also filed a patent-infringement complaint against Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy SA, formed by the merger of Siemens AG’s wind unit and Gamesa Corp. Tecnologica SA. A U.S. International Trade Commission judge earlier this month said that Siemens Gamesa infringed a GE patent that expires in May 2023 but that a second one, which expires in 2027, is invalid.

There’s no indication that case was settled. Last week GE filed arguments on why Siemens Gamesa should be found in violation of the 2027 wind turbine patent as well.

The case is General Electric Co. v. Siemens Energy Inc., 21-25, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (Richmond).
 

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