A federal judge has denied Human Longevity Inc.’s request for a temporary restraining order against the J. Craig Venter Institute, which HLI claims has stolen its trade secrets.

The denial says Human Longevity hasn’t shown that the lawsuit was served. It was filed Friday in U.S. District Court for Southern California.

Human Longevity had asked for the restraining order to prevent what it says would be further spread of its trade secrets for assessing health and preventing and treating disease.

The civil lawsuit, filed July 20, says the secrets were wrongfully taken by J. Craig Venter, a cofounder of both Human Longevity and the J. Craig Venter Institute.


The lawsuit named JCVI as a defendant, but not Venter himself. The institute has said the lawsuit is without merit.

JCVI opposed the restraining order on the grounds that Human Longevity hadn’t shown the need for it, and also failed to show that any property or trade secrets had been illegally taken. The disputed property includes a Lenovo laptop computer that Venter had used for both companies.

Human Longevity asked the court to order the laptop’s return, along with measures to determine what trade secrets information the institute has. This included inspection of all email accounts used by JCVI since Jan 1, 2014.

Judge William Q. Hayes said Human Longevity can refile the restraining order once it proves it has served JCVI with the lawsuit, or that service has been waived. JCVI says it has offered to waive service, but Human Longevity hasn’t responded.


Other matters remain pending, including Human Longevity’s motion to disqualify JCVI’s attorneys at Cooley LLP, on conflict of interest grounds.

Human Longevity said Cooley had recently represented Human Longevity in a trade secrets case against a former HLI employee.

“Here, Cooley has represented HLI and is now adverse to HLI in substantially related successive matters whereby confidential information can be used against HLI,” Human Longevity said in a filing dated July 27.

Apart from the lawsuit, Human Longevity has struggled for some time with management turnover.


Dr. David Karow was named interim chief executive officer in July, replacing Venter, who left in May. Venter had taken over the CEO position in December, following the departure of Cynthia Collins, who had led the company for less than a year.

And this spring, former chief operations officer, Saturnino “Nino” Fanlo, left the company without explanation.

Fanlo had been accused of sexual harassment in a previous job, according to stories in the New York Times and other publications. Fanlo denied harassing women and said he respects them.

Haynes is the third judge assigned to the case, originally assigned to Judge Roger T. Benitez. He was recused from the case the day it was filed, and it was reassigned to Judge John A. Houston. Haynes was assigned on July 25.


Related reading

Human Longevity sues J. Craig Venter Institute, alleging theft of trade secrets

Human Longevity names interim CEO

Genome pioneer Craig Venter retiring from Human Longevity; returning to JCVI


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