Irell & Manella Wins Unanimous Verdict

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Irell & Manella, a 220-attorney firm based in Los Angeles, earned a unanimous decision on behalf of Novellus Systems in Santa Clara County Superior Court. The lawsuit was originally filed against Novellus in 2002 by Linear Technology Corp, which was seeking $200 million in damages from Novellus and co-defendant Tokyo Electron Corp.

The suit began in March 2002 when Linear filed a complaint against Novellus and other semiconductor equipment suppliers seeking damages for breach of contract, violation of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, fraud, unfair competition and breach of warranty.

Irell won a dismissal of Linear’s claims of fraud and unfair competition in October 2004 and in June 2007, the Court of Appeal for the Sixth Appellate District affirmed the dismissals in a published decision.

  

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The recently-concluded jury trial, which began Jan. 19, was limited to Linear’s remaining claims for breach of warranty and a violation of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing. The jury came back with the unanimous decision after just a few hours of deliberation.

“For nearly a decade Linear has been alleging that Novellus had acted improperly toward them, and Novellus has been denying those allegations,” said Jonathan Kagan, an Irell lawyer who represented Novellus at trial. “Now that we have had our day in court, we can say with certainty that these allegations are – and always have been – completely false.”

Other Irell attorneys working on the case included Morgan Chu, Jonathan Kagan, Lisa Glasser,  and David McPhie. Allen Ruby of the Law Offices of Allen Ruby represented Linear.

Irell Manella was founded in 1941 and has 220 attorneys with offices in Los Angeles and Newport Beach.