JDS Uniphase Corporation

Company overview. JDS Uniphase Corporation ("JDSU") was an American optical-technology company headquartered in Milpitas, California (earlier San Jose). It was formed in 1999 through the merger of JDS Fitel (founded 1981 in Ottawa) and Uniphase Corporation (roots from 1979), and was publicly traded on NASDAQ under the ticker JDSU. It is no longer an independent company: on August 1, 2015, JDSU separated into two publicly traded businesses — Viavi Solutions (NASDAQ: VIAV), which retained the test-and-measurement and optical-security operations, and Lumentum Holdings (NASDAQ: LITE), which took the optical-components and commercial-laser business. Contemporary reporting put Viavi at roughly $950 million in annual revenue and about 3,200 employees at separation, and Lumentum at roughly 1,500 employees. The JDSU name was retired.

Products / services / operations. JDSU designed and manufactured equipment for optical communications networks, communications test and measurement instruments, commercial and telecom lasers, optical solutions for authentication and decorative applications, and custom optics. Its communications/optical-products arm supplied components such as wavelength-selective switches (WSS) used in reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexers (ROADM).

Patent-litigation posture. The single tracked matter, JDS Uniphase Corporation v. Fiber, LLC (PTAB, filed June 7, 2013), lists JDSU as plaintiff, but this is an inter partes review petition — JDSU was the petitioner challenging patents, not a district-court infringement plaintiff. It is best characterized as an operating company deploying PTAB proceedings defensively to invalidate patents asserted by a third party against its customers, rather than as a patent assertion entity. There are no tracked cases in which JDSU is a defendant.

Notable case context. In IPR2013-00336, JDSU challenged U.S. Patent 6,430,332, owned by Fiber, LLC (related to Astarte Fiber Networks, which developed the mid-1990s photonic-switching technology). Fiber had sued Ciena and NEC — reportedly JDSU customers or indemnitees — in the District of Colorado in 2012. A companion petition, IPR2013-00318, targeted U.S. Patent 7,095,917. The Board's December 2014 final written decision held several challenged claims of the '332 patent unpatentable. The dispute reflects JDSU's position as a component supplier drawn into litigation over optical-switching patents.