The Difference Between New Trial and JNOV

Grail Semiconductor, Inc. v. Mitsubishi Electric & Electronics, Inc., No. H038714 (D6 Apr. 22, 2014)

This is some heavy-duty litigation over Mitsubishi’s alleged disclosure of memory chip technology in violation of an NDA with plaintiff, the technology’s inventor. A jury awarded plaintiff almost $124 million. The trial court, however, ordered a new trial on damages, ruling that the jury had used an erroneous measure that assumed plaintiff lost the entire value of the technology due to the disclosure, even though the evidence showed that plaintiff still had the ability to profit from the technology after the breach. In this appeal, Mitsubishi argues that on damages, the trial court should have granted it a JNOV—not just a new trial—and that the court should also have granted a new trial on liability due to improperly admitted evidence.