Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. convinced an Ohio federal judge on Friday to throw out a $64 million jury verdict over its alleged theft of trade secrets related to self-inflating tires.
U.S. District Judge Sara Lioi said most of the trade secrets that Czech company Coda Development accused Goodyear of stealing were too vague to be legally protected.
A spokesperson for Goodyear said Monday that the company agrees with the decision and “respects the intellectual property rights of others.” Attorneys for Coda did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
Coda sued Akron, Ohio-based Goodyear in 2015, and said in an amended 2019 complaint that Goodyear copied Coda CEO Frantisek Hrabal’s technology to keep tires inflated with an internal tube, after discussing a potential collaboration in 2009 for General Motors Co.’s Chevy Volt.
