ITC Spotlight – January 2023 Edition

January 23, 2023 -  On December 20, 2022, Judge Colm F. Connolly of the District of Delaware granted a motion filed by the U.S. International Trade Commission (“ITC”) to intervene in a litigation pending before him.¹ According to the ITC, the highly unusual step of intervening in a district court case was necessary to prevent the Plaintiffs and the district court from “impermissibly interfer[ing] with the Commission's fulfillment of its statutory obligations."²

The litigation was filed by Synopsis, Inc. and Cadence Design Systems, Inc., suppliers of Electronic Design Automation software tools for use in the design and manufacture of semiconductor chips, against Bell Semiconductor LLC. In their complaint for declaratory judgment, the Plaintiffs contended that Bell was waging “a sprawling litigation campaign…against Plaintiffs' customers,” having asserted, in a seven-month period, six patents in various combinations in 87 district court actions and three ITC