Irell & Manella
Firm overview:
Litigation specialist Irell & Manella serves clients across the world from its offices in southern California and Washington, DC. The firm’s patent prosecution guidance dovetails with its patent litigation experience. Irell’s transactional lawyers and litigators work together to help clients build portfolios and licensing models suited for litigation, creating risk profiles that enable many clients to receive appropriate compensation for their inventions without the need for contested proceedings.
The firm is known for handling complex patent litigation for technology and life sciences clients. Named Legal Innovator of the Year in the LSPN Awards USA 2025, organised by WIPR sister title LSIPR, Irell & Manella takes a creative approach to IP disputes, and frequently handles patent cases before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) along with co-pending infringement litigation in federal district courts.
Team overview:
Irell’s team of some 25 registered patent lawyers has extensive experience obtaining patents across a broad range of technologies, from life sciences to computer sciences. Many of the group have professional experience working in private industry and advanced technical degrees. The group also includes former patent examiners with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Chair of the Litigation practice group Morgan Chu is considered “one of the best litigators”, according to a peer. Renowned for handling high-profile patent matters in California, Chu was co-managing partner of the firm between 1997 and 2003. His work highlights include representing VLSI in its high-stakes patent clash with Intel.
Litigator Benjamin Hattenbach, in Los Angeles, serves as vice chair of the Litigation practice. Hattenbach’s practice is focused on intellectual property litigation and counselling, with an emphasis on complex patent infringement matters.
Key matters:
- Netlist v Samsung Electronics
In March 2025, Irell secured a trial victory for Netlist in its suit against Samsung, involving patents relating to computer memory technology. The verdict represented the fifth victory for Netlist in the past two years.
The jury agreed with Netlist that Samsung had materially breached a perpetual licence agreement. Irell partner Michael Harbour, a lead counsel for Netlist, told WIPR following the verdict that the issues in the case were “hyper-technical” and the team’s challenge was “how do we cut through that and tell the jury the story of what actually happened?”
Netlist hit Samsung with a fresh suit later in the year with new allegations of patent infringement. Counsel from Irella & Manella and McKool Smith represent the company.
- Pictiva Displays International v Samsung Electronics
Samsung was ordered to pay a small UK firm $191.4 million in damages for infringing key screen technology display patents.
McKool Smith and Irell & Manella secured the win for Dublin-headquartered Pictiva Displays, with a Texas jury finding that Samsung willfully infringed two of Pictiva’s patents.
- VLSI Technology v Intel
Counsel from Irell are on the team representing VLSI Technology in its long-running patent dispute with Intel over microprocessor technology.
VLSI sued Intel in 2019 alleging infringement of several semiconductor patents. In 2025, Intel secured a win following a trial that focused on a licensing issue, convincing a jury that Fortress Investment Group controlled both VLSI and Finjan. A judge will consider whether this implies that VLSI is a Finjan affiliate bound by a 2012 patent licence agreement with Intel.
- Roche v Foresight Diagnostics
In September 2025, Roche settled a legal dispute with diagnostics startup Foresight Diagnostics and several Stanford University affiliated researchers.
As part of the settlement, Foresight entered into a limited licensing agreement granting Roche rights to use its patented technology for Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma cancer detection.
Irell & Manella represented Foresight Diagnostics and its founders.
Clients:
Foresight Diagnostics, Pictiva Displays International, VLSI
