December 18, 2025
The Ninth Circuit clarified the rules of engagement in trade secrets disputes with guidance on when confidential information must be precisely detailed during litigation, and jurors delivered a $200 million verdict against Walmart over product freshness technology. Here are Law360's picks for the biggest trade secrets decisions of 2025.
July 28, 2025
Walmart Inc. has reached a settlement with Zest Labs Inc. to end a suit accusing the retail behemoth of using Zest Labs' trade secrets related to shelf-freshness technology after a jury awarded the company $223 million in damages, according to a Monday court order.
May 14, 2025
An Arkansas federal jury has awarded Zest Labs Inc. nearly $223 million in a suit that had accused Walmart of swiping the startup's trade secrets related to shelf-freshness technology.
March 11, 2025
A startup suing Walmart over trade secrets connected to shelf-freshness technology wants an Arkansas federal court to block the retailer from retaining former U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director Kathi Vidal as an expert when the $115 million case moves forward to a retrial.
October 24, 2024
Zest Labs wants Walmart sanctioned in a suit claiming the retail giant stole the startup's trade secrets related to shelf-freshness technology, telling an Arkansas federal judge that Walmart hid important evidence about patents it had filed applications for.
July 10, 2024
Counsel for a food tech startup that saw its $115 million patent infringement verdict against Walmart nixed may be ordered to pay the retail giant's $2.9 million legal bill due to misrepresentations about a key piece of evidence, an Arkansas federal judge said.
December 22, 2023
Walmart can have a new trial after an Arkansas federal jury determined that it nicked a startup's trade secrets related to shelf-freshness technology and owed $115 million in damages, a federal judge ruled Friday.
August 30, 2022
The Eighth Circuit has shot down an appeal from startup Zest Labs Inc. of a lower court's order that it had to cough up dozens of documents in a food storage and technology patent case against Walmart in which Zest was handed a $115 million jury verdict.
April 27, 2021
Zest Labs Inc. asked an Arkansas federal court on Tuesday to make Walmart Inc. fork over $46 million in attorney fees and expenses based on a 40% award contingency fee from the startup's $115 million jury verdict against the retail giant over infringement of a food storage and technology patent.
April 12, 2021
A jury in Walmart's home state of Arkansas said the world's largest retailer owes a Texas food technology startup $115 million after it developed shelf-freshness technology by shoplifting the startup's trade secrets.