Karen L. Dunn

Karen L. Dunn has at least two big trials for big clients coming up this year. One could send ripples through the semiconductor industry. The other could upend the business of advertising on the internet.

In the first, she is defending semiconductor giant Qualcomm in a licensing dispute with chip-architecture design company Arm Ltd. Qualcomm has licenses to some Arm designs, as did another chipmaker, Nuvia, which Qualcomm purchased in 2021. Arm contends that Nuvia’s licenses did not transfer in the acquisition. The trial is set for late September. Arm Ltd. v. Qualcomm Inc., 1:22-cv-01146 (D. Del., filed Aug. 31, 2021).

“Obviously, it’s a huge dispute that potentially could have a big impact on the semiconductor space,” Dunn said.

She and her team are also set to be lead trial counsel defending Google in the antitrust action brought by the Department of Justice and 17 states targeting the search giant’s highly profitable digital advertising business. The lawsuit accuses Google of monopolizing digital advertising technology through acquisitions and strong-arm tactics. No trial date has been set. U.S. v. Google, 1:23-cv-00108 (E.D. Va., filed Jan. 24, 2023).

Last year, Dunn and her team won an administrative ruling for Uber that knocked out a New York taxi commission rule that would have significantly boosted rideshare drivers’ pay, potentially costing the company $23 million a month. Uber USA LLC v. New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission, 160451/2022 (N.Y. Cnty. Sprm Ct., filed Dec. 9, 2022).

She also won a second trial for Oracle, accusing third-party software support provider Rimini Street of violating Oracle’s copyrights in certain support software. The first trial in 2018 ended with a $90 million judgment and a permanent injunction against Rimini. Last July, Dunn won an even tougher injunction plus what Dunn called an extraordinary order from the judge declaring Rimini to be “a recidivist infringer.” Rimini Street Inc. v. Oracle International Corp., 2:14-cv-01699 (D. Nev., filed Oct. 15, 2014).

The most interesting event for Dunn last year, however, was the release of an HBO documentary on her team’s trial victory against 17 white nationalist leaders and organizations on behalf of nine plaintiffs injured during the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville. Titled “No Accident,” the documentary “really follows how we put the case together,” she said.

— Don DeBenedictis