Andrew Y. Choung

Choung helped score a $400 million jury win in a patent case last June.

“I like to fight for the little guy,” he said. “In the cases that I handle, my clients are very personally invested in the cases.”

Choung also provides his clients strategic counsel on generating licensing and monetization programs, patent portfolio development and intellectual property due diligence.

He helped secure a sizable jury award in a patent assertion action. He was lead counsel and served as second chair at trial representing KAIST IP US, the international arm of a joint venture with Korean research universities, which successfully sued Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and other defendants for infringing a patent related to semiconductor technology.

This technology, known as bulk FinFET, is a key building block used to fabricate processors often used in smartphones. The inventor, Seoul National University professor Jong-Ho Lee, originally filed and owned the patents to the technology. The patents were later assigned to KAIST IP US in 2016, according to court documents.

Choung’s client accused Samsung of copying the patented technology and then using those transistors to make chips not only for Samsung, but for other companies such as Qualcomm Inc.

“You can’t just open up a Samsung phone, peel back the cover, pull out the chip and see the transistor,” Choung said. “We had access to special imaging to see what those transistors looked like and we were confident in our infringement case.”

The jury found Samsung was a willful infringer of KAIST IP US’s patent and awarded $400 million in damages. KAIST IP US LLC v. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. et al., 16-CV01314 (E.D. Tx., filed Nov. 29, 2016).

“The professor invented something very important and the jury’s verdict in the case is a very important recognition of that,” Choung said.

Today, Choung represents several different types of clients with a focus on Korean universities, researchers and companies but his legal practice started with a different clientele.

“I started out primarily working for large corporations and defending them in patent suits, which is a rewarding practice in its own way. But gradually, I turned towards representing inventors, researchers, universities and small companies,” he said. “That led me to representing a client like KAIST IP US and the inventor.”

“At the end of the day, the patent system is set up to encourage innovation but attorneys help make it a reality, as a patent itself won’t necessarily do anything,” he said. “You have these inventors bring these innovations to the public and they get a patent, but it’s the job of intellectual property attorneys and practitioners to ensure these patents get respected.”

— Gina Kim