Bell Semiconductor, LLC v. ASMedia Technology, Inc.
- Lewis Liman
- 1:22-cv-08166
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
Bell Semiconductor v. ASMedia: Judge Liman stayed the case pending Delaware proceedings and denied the pending jurisdictional dismissal motion without prejudice.
Bell Semiconductor, LLC and ASMedia Technology, Inc.; the case is paused while the related Delaware litigation proceeds.
What happened
In Bell Semiconductor, LLC v. ASMedia Technology, Inc., the court considered ASMedia’s request to pause the case while a related Delaware case was resolved. The Delaware case involves Bell Semiconductor and other parties.
The court granted ASMedia’s motion to stay the case. It concluded that an exception for lawsuits involving a patent owner’s customer applied to the usual first-filed-case rule. The court required the parties to file status reports every 60 days, beginning August 25, 2023.
Judge Lewis J. Liman also denied the pending motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction without prejudice to renewal. The action remains stayed, but either side may ask to lift the stay if circumstances in the Delaware case change.
The detailed version
- Bell Semiconductor, LLC v. ASMedia Technology, Inc. · No. 1:22-cv-08166
- Lewis Liman
- June 28, 2023
Background
Bell Semiconductor, LLC brought this action against ASMedia Technology, Inc. A related case, Synopsys, Inc. & Cadence Design Sys., Inc. v. Bell Semiconductor, LLC, was pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. ASMedia asked the court to stay, or pause, this action until the Delaware case was resolved.
Court’s Reasoning
The court held that the “customer-suit” exception to the first-to-file rule applied. That exception generally gives priority to a case brought by a manufacturer seeking a ruling that it did not infringe a patent or that the patent is invalid when a patent owner has first sued the manufacturer’s customer. The court stated that it was granting the stay substantially for the reasons ASMedia presented.
Rulings
The court granted ASMedia’s motion to stay the action pending resolution of the Delaware case. The stay was entered without prejudice to either side moving to lift it based on changed circumstances in Delaware, including a decision allowing an interlocutory appeal or a decision favorable to Bell Semiconductor in such an appeal.
The court denied the pending motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction without prejudice to renewal. The clerk was directed to close that motion and stay the action. The parties were ordered to file a joint status report on August 25, 2023, and every 60 days afterward.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.