Morgan Chu

Chu sees his victories on behalf of Alviso-based TiVo Inc. and its patent on time-shifting television broadcasts as a triumph of the patent system.

The long-running legal battle between TiVo and Dish Network Corp. and EchoStar Corp. finally ended - more than seven years after it started - when the defendants agreed to pay a $610 million settlement in a one-time payment and licensing fees. TiVo Inc. v. EchoStar Communications Corp., 04-00001 (E.D. Tx., filed Jan. 5, 2004).

That was followed, in January, by a settlement with AT&T Inc. just days before TiVo's patent infringement case was scheduled to go trial. AT&T agreed to pay $215 million, plus additional royalties depending on the size of the telecom's subscriber base. TiVo Inc. v. AT&T Inc., 09-00259 (E.D. Tx., filed Aug. 26, 2009).

Even for Chu, a star patent litigator known for big plaintiffs' wins, that's quite a haul. "Together, those are $825 million plus possible future royalties," he said.

Chu, who led the Irell & Manella LLP team, believes strongly that his client deserves it. "They created a whole new industry," he said. "We need to have the right balance of incentives and rewards for innovation. The patent system is strong because it creates those incentives."

Chu wrapped up another long case in February when the California Supreme Court denied Linear Technology Corp.'s petition for a hearing over a decade-old lawsuit it filed against his client, Novellus Systems Inc., for selling it equipment that prompted a patent infringement claim by Texas Instruments Inc.

He also won what is the largest patent infringement verdict in the Western District of Arkansas in January for St. Jude Medical Inc. in a medical device case against Mountain View-based Access Closure Inc. A jury awarded $27.1 million to Chu's client in January over a vascular closure invention designed to seal the wound during a heart procedure.

- CRAIG ANDERSON

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