No. 24-1350

DAHUA TECHNOLOGY USA, INC., Plaintiff, Appellant,

v.

FENG ZHANG, Defendant, Appellee.

APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS

[Hon. Indira Talwani, U.S. District Judge]

Before

Rikelman, Lynch, and Aframe, Circuit Judges.

Daron L. Janis, with whom Daryl J. Lapp and Locke Lord LLP were on brief, for appellant. Benjamin Flam, with whom Philip J. Gordon and Gordon Law Group LLP were on brief, for appellee. Jeffrey M. Lipshaw, Suffolk University Law School, on brief for Contract Law Scholars, amicus curiae.

May 12, 2025 AFRAME, Circuit Judge. This is the second appeal in a protracted contract dispute between Dahua Technology USA, Inc. ("Dahua") and Feng "Frank" Zhang, a former Dahua executive. See Dahua Tech. USA, Inc. v. Zhang, 988 F.3d 531, 539-40 (1st Cir. 2021). Zhang alleges that Dahua breached its