Experience

Communications

Thane Bauz regularly defends companies against patent assertions relating to Internet, satellite, and cellular technologies. His legal experience in this space includes preparing non-infringement and invalidity defenses, participating in early settlement discussions, and taking cases to trial. He often counsels clients with products utilizing these technologies. His business-related projects have included patent portfolio development, sales and purchases. His patent litigation engagements in the communications space have involved products with annual sales approaching $1B.

Representative clients include Hughes, Autobytel, Kyocera, Nagra Kudelski, Sony and Marconi.

Representative communications-related litigation engagements:

Blue Spike LLC v. Huawei, et al.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas

Engaged to defend smartphone designer against multi-patent assertion concerning address space layout randomization functionality in the Android operating system. The case is pending.

Smart Audio LLC v. HTC Corporation, et al.
U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware

Retained to defend a multi-patent assertion involving audio software used in smartphones. The case settled on favorable terms after claim construction.

Datascape v. Kyocera Wireless Corp.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia

Retained to defend smartphone manufacturer against a multi-patent assertion relating to the downloading and formatting of digital content. Case settled on highly favorable terms after securing favorable claim construction and reexamination decisions.

ParkerVision Inc. v. InfoSonics Corp.
U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida

Engaged by defendant in a multi-patent lawsuit involving up-converting and down-converting of EM signals in broadband communications. Case was dismissed shortly after successful appeal in an unrelated case.

Bell Communications v. Marconi Communications Inc.
U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware

Represented Marconi in a multi-patent lawsuit involving telecommunication equipment, Internet Protocols, Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) and Ethernet switching technologies. The case settled soon after the court issued a favorable claim construction decision.

Personal Audio LLC v. HTC Corporation, et al.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas

Retained to defend a multi-patent lawsuit concerning audio playlist functionality in smartphones. The case settled on favorable terms shortly after arguing claim construction and discovery motions.

Composites, Alloys & Energy Storage

Thane Bauz has patent litigation and portfolio-related experience concerning composites, alloys and energy storage. He defended companies facing multi-patent assertions involving metals, such as Nickel-metal hydride used for energy storage, including at trial. He also defended companies that design and fabricate ICs. He licensed patents relating to carbon-fibre/epoxy laminates. Managing a team of five subject matter experts, Thane identified a dozen processing patents valued at $500M. Representative clients include Sanyo, Spansion, McDonnell Douglas and Samsung.

Representative materials and fabrication litigation engagements:

Omnivision Technology v. Photobit Corp.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

Retained in a multi-patent action relating to substrate design of CMOS sensors, associated amplifiers and signal chain circuitry. The case settled favorably soon after dispositive motions were filed.

The Boeing Company v. United States
U.S. Court of Federal Claims

Counsel on a patent case concerning liability and damages associated with use of aluminum lithium alloys on the space shuttle. Prevailed at trial and on appeal to the Federal Circuit.

Affymetrix Inc. v. Synteni Inc. et al.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

Engaged in a multi-patent case involving photolithography used to fabricate gene-chips.   The case settled on favorable terms after the decisions on motions for summary judgment.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd v. Sandisk Corp.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

Represented manufacturer of flash memory ICs in multi-patent case. The case settled on undisclosed terms.

Graychip Inc. v. Watkins-Johnson Co.
Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara

Engaged to represent designer of IC layouts for use in cellular base station transmitters and receivers.  The case settled on highly favorable terms after successfully moving for production of “smoking gun” documents.

Electronics

Thane Bauz has extensive experience concerning patents relating to electronics, from early case assessment to trial. Representative engagements involve technologies such as semiconductor fabrication, IC layouts, encoders and decoders, surface mount packaging, flash memory circuitry, and networking components for data transport and storage. He has analyzed portfolios and negotiated sale of patents in the electronics space, such as switch fabrics, photodetectors and IC layouts. Representative clients include MediaTek, Photobit (now On Semiconductor), Intel, Texas Instruments, Spansion and AppliedMicro.

Representative electronics-related litigation engagements:

Blue Spike LLC v. DDM Brands, LLC et al.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas

Engaged on a case relating to virtual memory reallocation for protection of software, such as oblivious RAMs. Case is pending.

Quality Semiconductor Inc. v. Novalogic, LLC.
Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara

Engaged on a case relating to Content Addressable Memory (CAM) designs. The case settled favorably after pre-trial motions.

Cyrix Corp. v. Intel Corp.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas

Represented defendant in a patent infringement case involving microprocessor power management and register renaming algorithms. The case settled on undisclosed terms.

ParkerVision, Inc. v. InfoSonics, Corp. et al.
U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida

Engaged to represent defendant in a multi-patent lawsuit concerning up-converting and down-converting of EM signals in broadband processors. Case was dismissed shortly after successful appeal in an unrelated case.

Intergraph Corp. v. Intel Corp.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas

Represented by defendant in a multi-patent infringement case involving microarchitecture of 64-bit processors. The case included an adverse decision at trial which was overturned by the Federal Circuit.

Marconi Communications Inc. v. Telecordia Technologies Inc.
U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware

Engaged in a multi-patent action involving telecommunications architectures, switching fabrics and formatting of packetized data. The opposing party voluntarily stayed the case after issuance of a highly favorable claim construction decision.

SPH America LLP v. Acer Inc., et al.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California

Engaged in a multi-patent case relating to code-division multiple access processing of broadband signals in cellular phones.

Imaging & Display

Thane Bauz counsels companies concerning audio, visual and imaging technology.  Representative litigation matters involved display drivers, MPEG encoders and decoders, CRTs, light emitting diodes (LEDs), liquid crystal displays (LCDs), and digital imaging systems. Clients in these technological spaces have engaged him to prepare reexaminations and defend their companies in court, from early case assessment through to trial. Representative clients include Samsung, Sarnoff, HTC, MediaTek, Sanyo and Sony.

Representative imaging & display litigation engagements:

Datascape, Inc. v. Sony Mobile Communications Inc.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia

Retained to defend a multi-patent assertion concerning Internet-enabled devices, including tablets and smartphones. The patent-in-suit involved formatting data for display on tablets and smartphones. The case settled after close of fact discovery.

In re Certain Set-Top Boxes and Components Thereof
U.S. International Trade Commission

Retained in ITC for Section 337 action involving set-top boxes for decoding and display of satellite and cable transmissions.

Morpho Komodo v. Dell, et. al
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas

Engaged to defend a multi-patent lawsuit concerning biometric solutions used on smartphone displays. The case settled favorably after completion of briefing on claim construction.

Implicit Networks Inc. v. Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications Inc.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

Defended Sony in a multi-patent lawsuit concerning the touch screen displays on smartphones. The client obtained a highly favorable settlement.

MediaTek Inc. v. Sanyo Electric Company, Ltd.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas

Engaged in a multi-patent suit involving MPEG encoders, audio encoders and high definition displays used in over eight-hundred commercial products. The client obtained a highly favorable settlement following a highly favorable pre-trial ruling.

Affymetrix Inc. v. Synteni Inc. et al.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

Engaged in a multi-patent case involving photolithography used to fabricate gene-chips.   The case settled on favorable terms after favorable decisions on motions for summary judgment.

In re Certain Electronic Imaging Devices
U.S. International Trade Commission

Retained in an ITC case involving multiple patents covering electronic imaging technology used in smartphones. Prevailed on all issues in the final determination and on appeal to the Federal Circuit.

Instrumentation

As an engineer, Thane Bauz designed circuitry that remains in use today on commercial jets. The circuitry processes and packetizes data from instrumentation for in-flight display and maintenance download.

Thane defended companies against patent assertions involving instrumentation such as photo-detection, imaging, machine vision and IC testing. Thane has negotiated patent licenses involving instrumentation such as machine vision. Representative clients in the instrumentation space include Stanford University, Synteni, Endevco Corp., California Institute of Technology, Incyte Pharmaceuticals and HTC.

Representative instrumentation-related litigation engagements:

Omnivision Technology v. Photobit Corp.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

Retained in a multiple patent action relating to substrate design of CMOS sensors used for imaging. The case settled favorably soon after dispositive motions were filed.

Flashpoint Technology Inc. v. AT&T Mobility, LLC, et al.
U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware

Represented defendant in multi-patent assertion including aspects of electronic imaging technology.

Bell Communications v. Marconi Communications Inc.
U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware

Represented Marconi in a multi-patent lawsuit involving telecommunication equipment, Internet Protocols, Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) and Ethernet switching technologies. The case settled soon after the court issued a favorable claim construction decision.

Development Innovation Group, LLC v. Sony Mobile Communications, Inc.
U.S. District Court for the Central District of California

Represented Sony Mobile Communications in a multiple patent assertion relating to touch screen displays.  The case was dismissed prior to filing an answer.

Affymetrix Inc. v. Synteni Inc. et al.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

Engaged in a multi-patent case including technology for fluorescent tagging and detection.   The case settled on favorable terms after favorable decisions on motions for summary judgment.

ParkerVision Inc. v. InfoSonics Corp.
U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida

Engaged to represent defendant in a multi-patent lawsuit concerning including circuitry for generating baseband signals. Case was dismissed shortly after successful appeal in an unrelated case.

In re Certain Set-Top Boxes and Components Thereof
U.S. International Trade Commission

Retained in ITC for Section 337 action involving set-top boxes for decoding and displaying satellite and cable transmissions.