A federal jury in Austin returned a $9.2 million verdict Friday in favor of Katana Silicon Technologies, agreeing that a competitor had infringed a patent covering semiconductor manufacturing and chip packaging technologies.
Katana alleged the design GlobalFoundries used for its transistor products infringed its patent.
When the case was originally filed in February 2022, Katana alleged infringement of two patents and was seeking $45 million in damages. By the time the case went to trial, the jury was asked to determine if GlobalFoundries had infringed three claims in one patent. Katana asked jurors to award nearly $20 million in damages.
The case was originally filed in Waco but was moved to Austin before Western District of Texas Judge Alan Albright. GlobalFoundries asked for the transfer because it has an office in Austin.
A federal jury found GlobalFoundries infringed only one claim of the patent and awarded $9.2 million.
Paul Hastings represented the defendant GlobalFoundries and declined to comment.
Carter Arnett partner Scott Breedlove called the jury verdict “an important win” for his client Katana.
“We are proud that we had the stamina and patience that allowed us to protect Katana’s important innovations. The invention disclosed in the patent at issue here was a major contribution to the state of the art in FinFETs, the most important building block of the vast majority of modern semiconductor chips,” Khaled Fekih-Romdhane, manager of Katana, said in a statement. “The jury’s unanimous verdict reinforces the strength of Katana’s technology and the importance of enforcing intellectual property rights.”
The patent at issue is U.S. Patent 6,291,861.
Attorneys representing the defendant are Paige Arnette Amstutz, Lauren Christine Ditty and Robert Pierce Earle of Scott, Douglass & McConnico, Lowell Jacobson of Devlin Law Firm and Soyoung Jung, Joseph J. Rumpler and Allan Soobert of Paul Hastings.
Attorneys also representing the plaintiff include Bill Pedersen, Omer Salik, E. Leon Carter, Howard L. Lim and Alexis Ritzer of Carter Arnett.
The case is Katana Silicon Technologies LLC v. GlobalFoundries Inc., et al., 1:22-cv-852.
Editor’s note: This story has been clarified to reflect the jury found infringement of one out of three claims of the asserted patent.