This past July, Chip Packaging Technologies, LLC (CPT) received roughly 50 US patents from NXP Semiconductors, and this past week, the recipient filed suit, accusing Infineon Technologies (2:25-cv-00147) of infringing five of the transferred assets. In the Eastern District of Texas complaint, CPT targets the provision of a wide array of semiconductor products, including buck regulators, DC/DC converters, microcontrollers, power electronics modules, power switches, systems-on-chip (SoCs), and more.
The asserted patents (8,258,611; 8,394,713; 9,263,299; 9,299,646; 9,685,351) are described by the plaintiff as broadly directed to "semiconductor packaging technologies". CPT received them through two transactions dated on July 31, 2024, the moves recorded on September 10, 2024. The recipient was formed in Texas on July 2, 2024, apparently for the purpose of receiving these assets. State records identify Mark Roche and Joseph Kessler as the managing members of CPT.
On social media, Roche identifies himself as having been the founder and managing partner with West U Capital since June 2022. Roche is a cofounder of AT&T Knowledge Ventures, with a history of patent monetization through Techquity Capital Management, LLC, a firm that he founded with Abha Devine (apparently also a cofounder of AT&T Knowledge Ventures). Roche dates those activities from July 2008 through May 2022. Kessler tags himself on social media as an alum of Fortress Investment Group LLC (recently acquired by Mubadala Investment Company), as a "Managing Director – Intellectual Property Finance Group" from March 2013 through February 2022. He indicates that he has also been a founder and managing partner with West U Capital since June 2022. Kessler describes West U Capital as "invest[ing] in companies with valuable intellectual property" and as "precisely tailor[ing] capital investment structures, including infusions of growth debt, equity positions, and the acquisition of intellectual property".
In recent years NXP patents have been transferred to other NPEs, including, for example, to Dublin-based monetization firm Atlantic IP Services Limited's Eireog Innovations Limited and to Total Semiconductor, LLC. In March 2024, NXP assigned a portfolio to Velocity Communication Technologies, LLC, a Delaware entity tied to Brooks Borchers (with further details here), and this past December, it assigned 23 US patents to Ascale Technologies LLC, a Texas entity operating under the Anjay Venture Partners LLC umbrella (with further details here).
Most prominently, Fortress's VLSI Technology LLC has been litigating a large portfolio of former NXP assets through cases filed in multiple venues against Intel. Two of those cases have culminated in verdicts of $2.2B and $950M, respectively, in the Western District of Texas, though that first damage award has run into trouble on appeal: In December 2023, Federal Circuit vacated $1.5B of that verdict and remanded for a new trial on damages, also toppling the remaining $675M after reversing on infringement. Meanwhile, Intel has pushed ahead on its argument that it holds a license to the VLSI portfolio as a result of Fortress's acquisition of another plaintiff, a defense that it has also pursued in multiple venues—most recently through a standalone suit in Delaware. See here for RPX's most recent coverage of that complicated, long-running litigation.
CPT identifies the accused products in its new complaint specifically as the "Infineon OPTIREG Buck Regulator product line, the Infineon PROFET Smart HighSide Power Switch product line, the Infineon CoolGaN Integrated Power Stage products, the Infineon TC1782 AUDO MAX Microcontroller, Infineon TLF51801 OPTIREG Asynchronous DC/DC Step-Down Converter, and the Infineon TLE9872 Motix 32-bit Microcontroller".
Blue Peak Law Group LLP and Miller Fair Henry, PLLC represent CPT. This combination of counsel also represents Dialect, LLC, a Texas plaintiff with managing member Jeff Ronaldi—apparently the same Jeffrey Ronaldi that once served as a managing member (along with Bruce K. Lagerman) with Oyster Optics, LLC. Details about Dialect and Ronaldi can be read here.
The case against Infineon Technologies has been assigned to Chief Judge Rodney Gilstrap. 2/6, Eastern District of Texas.
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