Defendant
3 cases as defendant.
LSI Corporation (originally LSI Logic Corporation, commonly "LSI") was a U.S. semiconductor and storage-systems company headquartered in Milpitas, California, founded in 1981 by former Fairchild Semiconductor executives (Wikipedia; SemiEngineering). It traded on the NYSE as "LSI," reporting roughly $2.5 billion in revenue and about 4,300 employees in 2012 (company 10-K; Reuters, Dec. 16, 2013). It is no longer independent: Avago Technologies announced a $6.6 billion acquisition in December 2013, closing May 6, 2014; Avago later became Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ: AVGO), where LSI's businesses now reside.
Operations. LSI designed and sold semiconductors, adapters and software — an operating company, not an NPE. Product lines included custom ASICs; storage silicon (TrueStore read channels, preamplifiers, hard-disk controllers, SAS/SATA/RAID-on-chip with Fusion-MPT firmware); server RAID and host-bus adapters (MegaRAID, 3ware); flash/SSD controllers and PCIe flash cards (SandForce, Nytro); and Axxia multicore networking processors. Its 2007 merger with Agere Systems (ex-Lucent/AT&T) added Wi-Fi, audio and MPEG video IP.
Litigation posture. The tracked docket is predominantly offensive — 5 plaintiff vs. 3 defendant cases — making LSI an active two-way litigant that sued more often than it was sued. Cases clustered in its home districts (C.D. Cal., N.D. Cal.), the ITC and the Federal Circuit rather than the Eastern District of Texas.
Notable matters. LSI and Agere Systems filed ITC § 337 complaint 337-TA-837 (March 2012) against Funai, MediaTek, Ralink and Realtek over audiovisual and IEEE 802.11/ITU standard-essential patents ('087, '663, '867, '958), with parallel C.D. Cal. suits against Funai; the ITC found no violation and held the '958 patent invalid, and LSI's appeal failed in a nonprecedential 2015 Federal Circuit ruling on § 337's domestic-industry requirement. LSI also sued Vizio in C.D. Cal. (2010) over MPEG video decoder patents. Defensively, it faced Barnes & Noble's 2011 N.D. Cal. declaratory-judgment suit over Nook Wi-Fi/3G/audio patents, a related Funai action, and Realtek's 2012 N.D. Cal. case raising FRAND/antitrust allegations.
RAND/breach-of-contract action by Realtek against LSI and Agere, alleging breach of RAND/Letter-of-Assurance obligations by suing Realtek at the ITC before offering a RAND license. The '958 and '867 patents were the declared IEEE 802.11 standards-essential patents at issue; a jury awarded Realtek $3,825,000, and the verdict was upheld after post-trial motions.
Barnes & Noble Inc. brought a declaratory judgment action against LSI Corporation et al. in N.D. Cal. over U.S. Patent 5,870,087; outcome not established.
Funai Electric Co., Ltd. brought a declaratory judgment action against LSI Corporation in N.D. Cal.; the court issued a Markman order construing terms, including 'single memory' and 'first unified memory' as memory functioning as a unit, not limited to one physical chip.