Ryan K. Yagura

When Ryan Yagura first joined O'Melveny a quarter century ago after a short stint as an Intel engineer, none of the clients he worked with were based in South Korea. Now, as the chair of the firm's intellectual property and technology practice, nearly all of them are.

"Over the last 20 years, it's gone from a ... single-digit percentage to today, I would say it's probably 80 to 90% of the business that I do," he said. His major Korean clients include Samsung companies, Hyundai and Kia, LG Electronics, SK Group and Kumho Asiana.

(He does also regularly advise Santa Clara-founded Advanced Micro Devices Inc., the chipmaker that has been the principal competitor of his old employer, Intel.)

One reason is some strong electronic product design from Korean companies in "a lot of the industries where my IP group has trained as engineers." And of course, O'Melveny has made a significant investment into supporting Korean companies, he said, including opening an office in Seoul 12 years ago.

That office has four partners, a counsel and several associates, plus plenty of extra office space for the many L.A. and D.C. partners who work there regularly. "I'm probably there four or five times a year for two to three weeks at a time," Yagura said.

Although Yagura doesn't speak Korean, many O'Melveny lawyers are fluent, he added.

Last June, he led a large team that finally settled Samsung Electronics' largest recent patent litigation. The dispute principally was between the nonpracticing entity Daedalus Prime and chipmaker Qualcomm. The litigation was so expansive that his team only represented Samsung in one set of cases, while another firm represented it in a separate set.

"We found a way out," Yagura said. "We were able to resolve the matter early." Daedalus Prime LLC v. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., 2-22-cv-00354 (E.D. Tex, filed Sept. 12, 2022).

He also is leading Samsung's defense against other nonpracticing entities in at least another half dozen matters.

Two years ago, he won an important precedent on venue from the Federal Circuit. An audio company brought a patent infringement suit against Hyundai in the Western District of Texas by pegging venue to Hyundai car dealerships there. "The Federal Circuit basically said that a dealership is not an agent of a car company," Yagura said. In Re: Hyundai Motor America, 2022-109 (Fed. Circ., dec'd. March 9, 2022).

"It's an important ruling" that could also cover companies that sell electronics through retailers," he said. "It has long-range implications."

The underlying case continues in Los Angeles. StratosAudio Inc. v. Hyundai Motor America 2:22-cv-01712 (C.D. Cal., filed, March 15, 2022).

-- Don DeBenedictis