Heller v. Cepia L.L.C.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the
imposition of Rule 11 sanctions of $5,000 on a plaintiff's
attorney for exaggerating allegations in a complaint. As the
court explained, the mere "presence of some supported
allegations in a pleading does not necessarily shield from
sanctions an attorney who also includes unsupported
allegations." Heller v. Cepia L.L.C., Case No.
12-15083 (Mar. 4, 2014) (non-precedential, memorandum opinion).
Heller is a toy designer who had a prototype for a toy robotic
hamster. After entering into non-disclosure agreements with
two Hong Kong toy companies, A-Tech/The Bean and Ying Leung, Heller
shared information, including trade secrets, with the two toy
companies in order to get a price quote for his toy hamster
idea. According to the complaint, the two companies built a
prototype for the toy and Heller then began pitching his idea to
larger toy companies, namely Hasbro and Mattel. Later,
