Cases & Deals

Xilinx defends against patent claims by Japanese sovereign patent fund IP Bridge

Client(s) Xilinx Inc.

Jones Day represented Xilinx Inc., the industry leader in field programmable gate arrays, in its patent dispute with Godo Kaisha IP Bridge 1 ("IP Bridge"), a Japanese sovereign patent fund that holds approximately 800 patents and attempts to generate revenues by enforcing patents against U.S. operating companies. IP Bridge threatened to sue Xilinx on 22 patents in venues around the world. After negotiations failed, IP Bridge filed a lawsuit in E.D. Texas asserting two of its patents. Xilinx filed a declaratory judgment action in N.D. California on 12 separate IP Bridge patents. Faced with challenges on its patent infringement claims in N.D. California, IP Bridge ultimately granted Xilinx a covenant not to sue on the 12 DJ patents. In the E.D. Texas case, Xilinx obtained a rare victory on its motion to transfer venue to N.D. California. The asserted patents relate to transistor structures and interconnects for semiconductor devices. Xilinx successfully settled the dispute in February, 2019.

Godo Kaisha IP Bridge 1 v. Xilinx, Inc., No. 3-17-cv-06376 (N.D. Cal.); Godo Kaisha IP Bridge 1 v. Xilinx Inc., Case No. 2:17-cv-00100 (E.D. Tex.); and Xilinx Inc. v. Godo Kaisha IP Bridge 1, Case No. 5:17-cv-00509 (N.D. Cal.)