CHICAGO (LN) — U.S. District Judge Jeffrey I. Cummings denied BeiGene’s motion to dismiss AbbVie’s Defend Trade Secrets Act complaint on Tuesday, rejecting arguments that the pharmaceutical company failed to protect its secrets or plead them with enough specificity.
AbbVie, a North Chicago-based biopharmaceutical company, accused BeiGene and former AbbVie Senior Research Scientist Huaqing Liu of conspiring to misappropriate trade secrets concerning a chemical compound being developed as a cancer therapy. According to the complaint, Liu, who announced his retirement in September 2019, departed AbbVie that same month and began working at BeiGene as Executive Director of its Department of Chemistry in Beijing.
The suit claims BeiGene used AbbVie’s proprietary information to dramatically alter its own development of the same compound, filing a series of patent applications that closely resembled AbbVie’s designs shortly after Liu’s arrival.
Defendants argued that AbbVie failed to allege Liu took tangible information, did not plead protective measures specifically applicable to the BTK degrader program, and failed to adequately specify the alleged trade secrets.
Cummings rejected those arguments, writing that defendants’ positions relied on "inapposite cases," ignored Circuit precedent, and required the court to draw inferences in their favor rather than AbbVie’s.
"The Court finds that AbbVie has properly pled a DTSA claim," Cummings wrote. "Accordingly, defendants’ motion to dismiss... is denied."
On the issue of specificity, the court found AbbVie’s identification of linker, target binding ligand, and E3-ligase binding ligand designs sufficient to put defendants on notice. AbbVie’s complaint included diagrams of nine linker designs, three target binding ligand designs, and other component combinations, alleging they contained "relatively short and less flexible cyclic amine structures" and other unique features.
Cummings also dismissed BeiGene’s argument that AbbVie failed to take reasonable measures to protect its secrets because it did not implement "differentiated heightened protection" for the BTK degrader program. The judge noted that the Seventh Circuit requires only that measures be "reasonable," not that they be unique to a specific trade secret.
The court cited AbbVie’s allegations of computer controls, network security, password administration, and restricted access to critical function stakeholders as sufficient to survive dismissal.
Regarding misappropriation, Cummings found AbbVie adequately alleged that Liu improperly used or disclosed trade secrets through his memory, noting that "trade secrets can exist in employees’ memories; a trade-secret plaintiff does not need to show that an actual document was taken."
The judge pointed to the "suspicious circumstances" of Liu’s departure and the "rapid timeline" between his joining BeiGene and the company’s publication of patent applications containing allegedly misappropriated designs.
AbbVie identified six post-Liu BeiGene patent applications that it alleged contained trade secret designs, including one where Liu was listed as a named inventor. The court found these allegations, combined with the accelerated development timeline, permitted a plausible inference of misappropriation.
Cummings lifted the stay on discovery and ordered the parties to file a joint status report by May 18, 2026, setting forth a proposed schedule for fact and expert discovery and providing an update on settlement negotiations.
Defendants are ordered to answer the complaint by June 2, 2026.