Chip Packaging Technologies, LLC (CPT) has hit STMicro (7:25-cv-00505) with a Western District of Texas complaint, targeting the provision of a wide array of semiconductor products, including microcontrollers, MOSFETs, and piezoresistive pressure sensors. Asserted are five former NXP patents described by the plaintiff as generally related to "innovative improvements to semiconductor packaging technologies"; that set overlaps with the six already in suit against Infineon Technologies.
The plaintiff here was formed in Texas on July 2, 2024, listing Mark Roche and Joseph Kessler as its managing members. 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".
As noted, CPT targets with the asserted patents a wide variety of products: with the 8,643,189 patent, of STMicro Mainstream Arm Cortex-M0+ MCU with 128 Kbytes of Flash memory (STM32G071CB) family; the 9,263,299 patent, of the STMicro MOSFET N-CH 60V 120A POWERFLAT product line; the 9,299,646 patent, of the STMicro 32-bit Power Architecture MCU for Automotive General-Purpose Applications - Chorus family (SPC582B60E1) "and all other products with power and ground bar arrangements that are not colorably different"; the 9,685,351 patent, of STMicro SR5 E1 Series 32-bit MCUs, including the SR5E1E7; and the 10,151,658 patent, of the STMicro LPS28DFW product line "and all other products with a pressure sensing gel structure that are not colorably different".
The case against Infineon was assigned to District Judge Rodney Gilstrap. In April, he signed an order appointing an international process server for the case, the docket of which has been quiet since. District Judge David Counts has been assigned to preside over the suit against STMicro. Blue Peak Law Group LLP represents CPT. 10/30, Western District of Texas.
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