Suit alleges D.C. firm failed to protect inventor’s secrets

A recently filed malpractice suit seeks to hold the D.C. law firm of McDermott, Will & Emery liable for the alleged theft of a California inventor’s confidential information.

Elizabeth Holmes and her medical technology company, Theranos, Inc., sued McDermott last month in D.C. Superior Court. The Palo Alto, Calif., inventor retained McDermott in 2003 to obtain patents for various inventions, including a bodily fluid analyzer.

According to Holmes, a former partner at the firm, John Fuisz, provided her confidential information to his relatives, who used the information to obtain a patent on the bodily fluid analyzer Holmes claimed she invented. Fuisz left McDermott in 2009 to start his own firm.

“[McDermott] did not exercise reasonable care to prevent its employees, associates, and/or partners, including John Fuisz, from disclosing or using Plaintiffs’ confidential information,” said the inventor’s Dec. 29 complaint.

Holmes said in her lawsuit that a California federal court dismissed her malpractice suit against Fuisz last year based on that state’s one-year statute of limitations. According to her complaint, Holmes is in the process of appealing that decision.

The lawsuit against McDermott in D.C. Superior Court includes claims for legal malpractice, breach of fiduciary duty, negligence and breach of contract.