Biorobotics start-up Trilobio has won an injunction against its former CFO and his company after accusing him of trade secret theft in a Californian district court.

Judge Jon Tigar from the US District Court for the Northern District of California granted a temporary restraining order against Keoni Gandall on 17 October and expedited discovery after finding that Trilobio had made a “strong showing of likelihood of success on the merits” of its California Uniform Trade Secrets Act (CUTSA) claim.

The court found that the evidence showed that Gandall took confidential, trade secret information from Trilobio after his termination and used it for the company he then founded – Nanala – despite Gandall having signed a confidentiality agreement while employed at Trilobio.

According to Trilobio’s motion, the source code allegedly stolen by Gandall was the foundation of its proprietary technology which aims to decrease the cost of creating long sequences of DNA for medical and genetic research. 

Trilobio alleges that immediately after his termination “Gandall accessed Trilobio’s most sensitive documents and data – including data he was unauthorised to access, like CEO Roya Amini-Naieni’s work email account and Google Drive”.

However, the court did not grant Trilobio’s request for “full disk forensic imaging” of all of the defendant’s personal accounts and electronic devices due to potential privacy concerns.

“We are pleased that the court took immediate action to protect Trilobio’s trade secrets,” said Amini-Naieni, adding that Trilobio “will always defend its intellectual property vigorously”.

According to Trilobio’s motion, the technology allegedly stolen marries hardware and AI software that creates “bio-robots fitted with sensors enabling them to monitor and modify their behaviour as they conduct genetic testing”, including by “us[ing] AI to improve their performance, learn from their mistakes, and diagnose errors in testing processes that would otherwise be undiscovered”.

Trilobio and its founders, Amini-Naieni and head of robotics Maximilian Schommer, were featured in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 for 2024 for their work in biorobotics.

Trilobio was represented by partner Ronald J. Fisher and trial lawyer Ellen Leonida of Sideman & Bancroft in San Francisco.