Appian Corp. (NASDAQ:APPN) announced it will pursue a second trial in its long-running trade secrets battle against Pegasystems (NASDAQ:PEGA0, following a Virginia Supreme Court ruling that refused to dismiss the case but sent it back to a lower court for a fresh look.
The decision from the state's highest court effectively leaves the core of the dispute unresolved while clearing the path for a new jury to hear evidence of what Appian describes as a years-long "spy" operation.
While the court did not reinstate the original $2.04 billion verdict from 2022—one of the largest in Virginia history—it rejected Pega’s efforts to have the claims tossed entirely.
The legal saga centers on allegations that Pega hired an employee of a government contractor to act as a "spy" to gain access to Appian’s proprietary software.
According to court records, the individual allegedly provided Pega with deep-dive analysis and tutorials on the inner workings of Appian’s platform, helping Pega improve its own competing products.
The Supreme Court's opinion noted that Pega went to "great lengths" to conceal the identity of the consultant and used aliases to gain access to Appian's software trials.
Pega has already been found to have violated the Virginia Computer Crimes Act—a ruling it did not appeal—but the $2 billion trade secret award was overturned on procedural grounds related to jury instructions.
For Pegasystems, the remand offers a second chance to argue that the information obtained was not a trade secret or that the damages were grossly inflated.
For Appian, the retrial is a bid to reclaim a massive financial judgment and protect its intellectual property in the cutthroat low-code automation market.
The timeline for the new trial remains uncertain, and both parties have indicated that further appeals are possible.
As the two companies prepare for round two, the tech industry is watching closely for a precedent-setting ruling on how corporate intelligence-gathering crosses the line into illegal misappropriation.