Mattson Technology v. Materials
Mattson Technology, Inc. v. Applied Materials, Inc., Vladamir Nagorny, and Rene George
- Susan Van Keulen
- 5:23-cv-06071
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 5
Counsel of record per CourtListener. Firm names are approximate and have been consolidated across spelling variants.
In Mattson Technology v. Applied Materials, Judge Van Keulen granted Mattson's motion to amend its complaint to add a 'Red Path' trade secret claim, with specific paragraph-level edits required.
Companies and individuals involved in trade secret litigation — particularly plaintiffs who experienced disruptions to their legal representation during ongoing litigation and are seeking to broaden their claims — and defendants facing new claims added late in the discovery process.
What happened
Mattson Technology, Inc. sued Applied Materials, Inc. and two individuals, alleging theft of trade secrets developed as part of an internal project called 'Project Traveler.' Mattson's existing complaint covered two approaches from that project — 'Grey Path' and 'Green Path' — and Mattson sought permission to amend the complaint to add claims about a third approach called 'Red Path.'
The court weighed the key factors for allowing a complaint amendment under federal procedural rules: delay and prejudice to the other side. Although Mattson waited a significant time before seeking to add the Red Path claim, the court found that unusual circumstances — including lengthy proceedings over the disqualification of Mattson's prior attorneys, and restrictions on what work product the new attorneys could access — partially explained the delay. The court also found that defendants would not lose the value of their prior discovery work, since documents and witnesses related to Project Traveler overall would still be relevant.
Judge Susan Van Keulen granted the motion, but with conditions. The court allowed some of Mattson's proposed new paragraphs and blocked others — for example, new allegations about 'employee poaching' and references to 'magnetic field concentrators' were not permitted or were ordered stricken in part. The court also updated the scope of permitted discovery to include the Red Path approach across multiple identified trade secrets, and set a deadline of August 21, 2026 for Mattson to file the revised complaint.
The detailed version
- Mattson Technology v. Materials · No. 5:23-cv-06071
- Susan Van Keulen
- Aug. 19, 2026
Background
Mattson Technology, Inc. brought suit against Applied Materials, Inc. and two individual defendants, Vladamir Nagorny and Rene George, alleging misappropriation of trade secrets. The trade secrets at issue arose from Mattson's internal initiative known as 'Project Traveler,' which produced multiple technical development approaches. Mattson's operative pleading at the time of this motion — the First Amended Complaint (FAC) — included trade secret claims tied to two of those approaches, referred to as 'Grey Path' and 'Green Path.'
The Motion
On June 24, 2026, Mattson filed a Motion for Leave to File a Second Amended Complaint (SAC), seeking to add a new claim related to a third approach from Project Traveler: 'Red Path.' Applied Materials opposed on July 15, 2026, and Mattson replied on July 27, 2026. The court set the matter for oral argument, which was held on August 18, 2026, and ruled from the bench.
Legal Standard
Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15(a)(2), after the period for amendment as of right has passed, a party may amend its pleading only with the opposing party's written consent or the court's leave, and 'the court should freely give leave when justice so requires.' The Ninth Circuit has held this policy is 'to be applied with extreme liberality.' The Supreme Court in Foman v. Davis, 371 U.S. 178 (1962), identified factors courts must weigh: undue delay, bad faith, repeated failure to cure deficiencies, undue prejudice to the opposing party, and futility. The Ninth Circuit has further held that prejudice to the opposing party carries the greatest weight among these factors.
Analysis and Ruling
The court focused on two factors as most relevant: delay and prejudice.
Delay
The court found that the delay in filing the motion weighed against granting leave, but found this factor mitigated by unusual circumstances — specifically, lengthy proceedings surrounding the disqualification of Mattson's prior counsel, and the need for new counsel to get up to speed without access to certain prior work product that had been stricken by court order.
Prejudice
The court acknowledged that defendants would suffer some prejudice from having to litigate a new claim added years after discovery began. However, the court found that prior discovery efforts would not be wasted, since documents and individuals identified in connection with Project Traveler overall remain relevant to a Red Path claim as well.
The court concluded that the delay and prejudice to defendants did not outweigh the policy in favor of freely granting leave to amend, and granted the Motion.
Paragraph-Level Rulings on Proposed Amendments
The court did not allow all of Mattson's proposed edits. The court ruled paragraph-by-paragraph as follows:
- ¶14 (Escala product family): Not allowed. - ¶17 (Red Path approach): Allowed. - ¶20 (References to 'magnetic field concentrators'): Portions ordered stricken: 'In addition, they developed . . .' and 'and can be utilized . . .' — the existing text between those phrases may remain. - ¶34 (Mattson's trade secret protection): Allowed. - ¶52 (Employee poaching): Not allowed. - ¶54 (Employee poaching): Not allowed as drafted; Mattson may only allege that other Mattson employees had been hired by Applied prior to Mr. George and Dr. Nagorny. - ¶56 (Third 'disclosing patent application'): Allowed. - ¶58 (Economic benefits of the trade secret): Allowed. - ¶69 (More detail re existing disclosing patent) and ¶¶71–77: Allowed in full. - ¶78 (References to 'magnetic field concentrators'): Stricken from 'On information and belief, Dr. Nagorny worked on another project . . .' to the end of the paragraph. - ¶79 ('Development of high efficiency source'): Stricken: 'specifically with respect to the development of a high efficiency source, and related process recipes.' - ¶80 (Applied use of trade secrets): Allowed.
Any amendments in the proposed SAC not listed in the court's chart are allowed.
Modification of Protective/Discovery Order
In light of the added Red Path claim, the court modified the scope of the existing protective order (Dkt. 232) to expand permissible discovery into the following trade secrets to include the Red Path approach alongside Grey Path and Green Path: Trade Secrets 3b, 4, 5, 6a–6d, 7, 8, and 9 (as further limited during the hearing). Trade Secrets 1, 2, 10, and 11 remain discoverable without the path-specific limitation. Mattson may not seek discovery into trade secrets related to direct plasma sources, high-efficiency sources unrelated to the Grey Path, Green Path, or Red Path approaches, or other aspects of Project Traveler.
For Trade Secret 7, given the wide page ranges of documents cited, the burden falls on Mattson to narrow its identification of documents to those related to the Grey Path, Green Path, or Red Path approaches.
Deadlines Set
- Mattson must file its Second Amended Complaint by August 21, 2026. - All defendants must file their Answers by August 28, 2026. - The parties must meet and confer on any needed changes to the case schedule and file either a stipulation or a Joint Case Management Statement by September 3, 2026. If the parties disagree, a Case Management Conference is set for September 8, 2026 at 9:30 a.m.
Read the full 5-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.
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