We are pleased to announce that a Baltimore County jury today rendered a 20 million dollar verdict in a commercial litigation matter, Adcor Defense, Inc. v Beretta, USA, Inc. The matter in dispute was the defendant’s willful misappropriation of Adcor’s cutting edge design of a modern AR-15 rifle. Adcor is a local Baltimore City aerospace manufacturing company. In 2008, Adcor undertook the redesign of the common AR-15 rifle in an effort to better improve the weapon to benefit our troops overseas. Beretta USA engaged Adcor with a promise to co-develop Adcor’s outstanding developments in the AR-15. Beretta, USA, is a subsidiary of Beretta Holdings, the oldest and one of largest and most successful firearms manufacturers in the world. Beretta signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement promising to keep all of Adcor’s information confidential and not to keep, use or disseminate it. At trial, it was proven that Beretta intentionally schemed to misappropriate all of Adcor’s innovative technology and never intended to abide by the Non-Disclosure Agreement. The Jury found that Beretta willfully violated the Non-Disclosure Agreement and took and used Adcor’s innovative technology for its own benefit and for the benefit of its sister companies. The case was tried by Briggs Bedigian, Jon Stefanuca and Lauren Bell of Gilman and Bedigian, LLC, a local law firm located in Timonium, as well as Thomas Donnelly and Kristin Tracy of The Law Offices of Thomas Donnelly, LLC, located in Baltimore City. Beretta, USA, was represented by attorneys from the national law firm of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings, LLP, led by T. Sky Woodward of the Washington, DC office.
