Continental Circuits LLC v. Intel Corporation et al DC CAFC

Last summer, Arizona NPE Continental Circuits LLC and Ibiden, supplier for codefendant Intel, notified the District of Arizona that the disputes underlying their litigation, running since June 2016, had been resolved by an arbitration proceeding that the parties entered into in light of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Dismissal with prejudice followed in July 2020. Now, the patent attorney behind the campaign has formed Continental Circuits of Texas LLC, the two entities filing new cases together as patent owner (Continental Circuits) and exclusive licensee (Continental Circuits of Texas), this time in Texas, one each against AMD (6:21-cv-00539), MediaTek (2:21-cv-00189), and Samsung (2:21-cv-00188).

Notable in the ongoing debate over the disclosure of commercial litigation funding is a recent decision in a patent suit filed by NPE Continental Circuits LLC against Intel and Ibiden (2:16-cv-02026). On January 27, Judge David G. Campbell of the District of Arizona issued an order granting in part, and denying in part, the defendants’ motion to compel litigation funding discovery.

New Arizona NPE Continental Circuits LLC has filed a case against Intel and one of its suppliers, Ibiden (2:16-cv-02026), for alleged infringement of six patents generally related to circuit boards with a “roughened surface structure” to facilitate joining layers in a multilayer electrical device. The patents originated with a Florida company that produced printed circuit boards, including, according to the NPE’s complaint, for Intel and others, before the company’s bankruptcy in the late '90s. Continental Circuits accuses the defendants of infringement through the manufacture and sale of a long list of products made with allegedly infringing circuit boards.