Presuming Judge Gertner rules on the preliminary injunction, what factors does she need to consider?
The judge has four main factors to consider when deciding whether or not to issue the preliminary injunction: the likelihood of the success of iRobot’s case on the merits of its main trade secret claim, the balance of hardships to the various parties, whether iRobot will suffer irreparable harm if the preliminary injunction is not issued, and the public interest. The balance of hardships and the public interest issue are somewhat intertwined in this case. The U.S. Attorney’s office jumped into the fray by filing a statement of interest, saying soldiers and Marines will be further imperiled if there is a delay in delivering Robotic FX’s robots to the Middle East. To counter that, iRobot put PackBot program manager Tom Frost on the stand to testify that the company could deliver its own robots right away, so that there would be no delay in the arrival of robotic technology in the theatre. Frost also testified about the irreparable harm iRobot could suffer from losing this contract, which
