Monterey Research, LLC v. STMicroelectronics N.V. et al

The deadline for four Marvell entities to answer, or otherwise respond to, the Delaware complaint filed against them in January 2020 by Monterey Research, LLC, a subsidiary of IP advisory firm IPValue Management (d/b/a IPValue), has been extended to May 19; however, late last week, Marvell perhaps previewed its response: in a Northern District of California complaint, Marvell Semiconductor, Inc.—the only domestic defendant (formed in California) named in Delaware—filed a complaint seeking declaratory judgments of noninfringement of the same five Monterey Research patents at issue in Delaware. The other three Marvell entities, two allegedly formed in Bermuda, the other in Singapore, do not appear as plaintiffs on the California complaint. Monterey Research’s campaign concerns a set of semiconductor patents developed by Cypress Semiconductor, with other cases active in Delaware against AMD, Nanya, STMicro, and Qualcomm.

Monterey Research, LLC—a subsidiary of IP advisory firm IPValue Management (d/b/a IPValue)—has added another case to its sole litigation campaign, over former Cypress Semiconductor patents, broadly related to semiconductors (including chip architecture, memory devices, and fabrication). The new defendant is Marvell (1:20-cv-00158), sued in Delaware, as were prior defendants AMD, Nanya, Qualcomm, and STMicro. Each of the five patents asserted against Marvell is already in suit in the campaign.

STMicro (1:20-cv-00089) has become the fourth defendant in the first litigation campaign of Monterey Research, LLC, a subsidiary of IP advisory firm IPValue Management (d/b/a IPValue). Across the campaign, the plaintiff asserts subsets of patents, generally related to semiconductors (including chip architecture, memory devices, and fabrication), acquired from Cypress Semiconductor. The new case was filed in Delaware, where the earlier three suits—filed separately against AMD, Nanya, and Qualcomm last November—sit in different postures in the earliest stages, all before District Judge Colm F. Connolly.

Monterey Research, LLC, a subsidiary of IP advisory firm IPValue Management (d/b/a IPValue), has added a third lawsuit to its new litigation campaign over former Cypress Semiconductor patents. Earlier in November, the plaintiff sued first Qualcomm and then Nanya Technology, adding a case against AMD (1:19-cv-02149) this past week, with all of the complaints filed in the District of Delaware. AMD is accused of infringing six patents through the provision of “all AMD devices incorporating SRAM with a 6T and/or 8T cell design”, including the A8-3800, A-Series, Pro A-Series, Ryzen, Ryzen Pro, Athlon, Epyc, FX, E-Series, Opteron, Phenom, Sempron, and the Turion processors. IPValue has been owned by private equity firm Vector Capital since 2014.