Greenthread, LLC has followed up March 2023 suits against Cirrus Logic, Micron Technology, and Western Digital in the District of Delaware with an April case against Texas Instruments (2:23-cv-00157) in the Eastern District of Texas. A wide array of semiconductor products, ranging from amplifiers to digital signal processors, is targeted with six semiconductor fabrication patents naming G.R. Mohan Rao as their sole inventor, all previously asserted in this campaign. Meanwhile, District Judge Alan D. Albright’s March 30 cancellation of an imminent trial between Vervain, LLC and Micron over a different family of Rao patents, and the reset of trial in that campaign as to Western Digital on the same day, has touched off a bit of a scramble in the Western District of Texas.

Greenthread, LLC has filed cases against Cirrus Logic (1:23-cv-00369), Micron Technology (1:23-cv-00333), and Western Digital (1:23-cv-00326) over the provision of certain semiconductor memory products (i.e., dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and/or flash memory products). Six patents naming G.R. Mohan Rao as their sole inventor are asserted in the new District of Delaware cases; Greenthread has been litigating those same patents in a case originally filed in the Western District of Texas, still active there as to defendants Dell and Sony but from which claims against Intel were transferred to the District of Oregon. After transfer, though, a magistrate judge has adopted much of the work that Western District of Texas Judge Alan D. Albright completed—both before and after transfer—including claim construction. Meanwhile, a trial between Vervain, LLC and Micron over a different family of Rao patents, set to begin before Judge Albright next month, was just canceled.

Texas plaintiff Greenthread, LLC has sued Dell and Intel (6:22-cv-00105) in a single suit, targeting the provision of Intel’s 10^th, 11^th, and 12^th generation of semiconductors (Comet Lake, Tiger Lake, and Alder Lake-series devices), alleged to be incorporated in various Dell laptops (Inspiron, New Inspiron, XPS, New XPS, G15, and Alienware-series products). Greenthread asserts five semiconductor fabrication patents, received from sole named inventor G.R. Mohan Rao, one of the plaintiff’s directors. Texas records indicate that this campaign is backed by a funder relatively new to patent monetization.

Various data and news sources are reporting that the US litigation finance sector will finish this year awash in capital. Meanwhile, there is mounting evidence that a growing number of NPEs are looking to third-party litigation funders to back new and existing campaigns. These investors include familiar players in the litigation funding and IP industries, as well as lesser known firms, a few of which are featured in this article.