Morgan Chu

Morgan Chu has so much fun litigating IP cases that he compares it to riding roller coasters. “There’s always interesting stuff going on,” he said. “You can get on one roller coaster and then after that get on another roller coaster.”

Even though litigation is famously full of delays, he sees no lines. “As I’m waiting, I just go to the next roller coaster. … I get to ride the roller coasters again and again and again.”

Certainly, some of his enjoyment must spring from his success. Widely seen as one of the best IP trial lawyers in the country, he has had some monumental wins recently.

Just about a year ago, he and his team achieved the largest patent final judgment ever, $2.3 billion against Intel for client VLSI Technology. The case dealt with just two patents, but they save power and increase performance in nearly a billion Intel microprocessors. The case is now on appeal. VLSI Technology LLC v. Intel Corp., 2022-1906 (Fed. Circ., filed June 15, 2022).

Then in November, Chu and his team won a $948 million jury verdict against Intel over another microprocessor patent owned by VLSI. The judge is still considering post-trial motions in that case. VLSI Technology LLC v. Intel Corp., 1:19-cv-00977 (W.D. Tex., filed April 11, 2019).

They and the client have yet another case pending against the giant chipmaker in federal court in San Jose. It is set for trial in March next year, Chu said. VLSI Technology LLC v. Intel Corp., 5:17-cv-05671 (N.D. Cal., Oct. 2, 2017).

He scored another important win against Intel in November, but this time on the defense side. The 9th Circuit affirmed the dismissal of Intel’s large and novel antitrust action against Chu’s client, a company that owns several patent assertion entities. Chu argued the case before a circuit panel on Oct. 11 in Hawaii. The court issued its unpublished opinion just four weeks later. Intel Corp. v. Fortress Investment Group, 21-16817 (9th Cir., Nov. 8, 2022).

Another reason Chu enjoys his practice so much is that he gets to keep up on the exciting pace of technological development “The speed at which people are coming up with new ideas in every area of technology is blazing and mind-boggling, and I have a front-row seat,” he said.

And he does not work only on cases involving computers and high tech. He also represents clients developing technologies from shoes to medicines to “ways to treat the toughest diseases in the world, which include various kinds of cancers. Oh, that is very exciting.”

— Don DeBenedictis