On October 26, a California jury awarded Caliper Technologies (Mountain View, CA) $52,568,000 after Aclara BioSciences (Mountain View, CA) was found guilty of misappropriating trade secrets. Attorney Bertram Roland, as an outside patent counselor for both companies, allegedly used Caliper's microfluidics trade secrets to draft the “'015 patent” for Aclara. Roland was “privy to confidential information concerning. . .everything Caliper was doing, would do, and our take on the market,” according to Jane Green, Caliper's senior director of corporate communications. “Since the '015 patent has never been used, it was our opinion, and the jury agreed, that it's drafting was solely to block Caliper's growth.” Roland separately settled with Caliper for $12 million in September, and is no longer employed by either company. Meanwhile, Aclara has filed with the US District Court that Caliper's LabChip infringes on its '015 patent. Although a judge has already declared there was no “literal infringement,” a trial will begin on December 4 to address the “equivalence” of the two technologies, as well as Caliper's countersuit for '015 invalidity.