Morgan Chu

Los Angeles

Practice: litigation

Specialty: intellectual property

Chu scored his latest court victory on behalf of TiVo Inc., ending a seven-year patent dispute against DISH Network and EchoStar Communications that ultimately netted more than $600 million for his client.

The long-running patent dispute involved TiVo's "Time Warp" digital video recorder technology. After many stops in the district and appellate courts, the federal circuit decided to rehear the case en banc. On April 20, the court ruled that DISH and EchoStar must disable certain DVRs that were found to infringe TiVo's patent. TiVo Inc. v. EchoStar Communications, 2-04-CV-001, (E.D. Texas).

Chu considers his client a good example of what has been driving the U.S. economy in recent years - innovation.

"For a long sweep of American history, we built cars better, did extremely well in making shoes and textiles and everything under the sun," he said.

But that's changed, Chu said, because many countries can now make quality goods and a lot of jobs have gone overseas.

"One area in which we're still a standout is innovation," Chu said. TiVo came up with something that was "truly inventive," he said. "For many consumers, it changed the way they watched television." Chu said

But with innovation there are risks, he said, which is why a strong patent system is crucial to protect inventors from large companies coming along and stealing their inventions.

In another significant case, Chu led a team in December that successfully obtained a $27.1 million award on behalf of St. Jude Medical Inc. - billed as the largest verdict ever in the Western District of Arkansas in any area of law. St. Jude Medical Inc. v. Access Closure Inc., CV04101, (W.D. Ark.)

The jury found that Access Closure Inc. willfully infringed St. Jude's patented technology for closing holes in arteries.

"I find new technology to be fascinating, and figuring out how to explain it to a group of people who don't have a scientific or engineering background, from different walks of life, is part of the challenge," Chu said."I also have the fun of meeting the inventors. Sometimes people come up with ideas in the shower,"

- PAT BRODERICK