How Alex Kozinski Kept Patent Case Real

Update: Some clarification and a fun detail or two ...

We’ve got a story going up tonight over at Cal Law about International Rectifier v. Ixys, in which a team of Townsend Townsend & Crew lawyers waged an eight-year patent battle for Ixys in the courtroom of, um, controversial L.A. Judge Manuel Real. There had been twenty other companies that International Rectifier had gotten to pay licensing fees or had beaten in Real’s courtroom, where IR could apparently do no wrong.

An interesting detail, though, is how this string of patent battles ended up in Real’s, um, controversial courtroom thanks to another colorful judge.

Judge Alex Kozinski

It’s [updated] like this: It was the late '80s, and a very young Ninth Circuit judge, Alex Kozinski, had been called in by the trial judge to handle the settlement between Siliconix and International Rectifier. And to hear Siliconix's lawyer in the case, Orrick's Bill Anthony, tell it, boy, did Kozinski handle it.

Kozinski issued an order one day that no one should leave the courtroom until the case was settled, reminding everyone that there was food and cots available. After the settlement went awry, as detailed below, Kozinski said he was going to call Judge Real, who was chief judge at the time. Very shortly after, the case was in Real's courtroom.

Anthony says he later asked Kozinski what he and Real spoke about, but Koz wouldn't say. [We're putting in a call now to test the judge's memory.]  Whatever happened, Real had the power as chief judge of the district court to transfer cases.

Kozinski, now the presiding judge of the Ninth Circuit, pulled executives from IR and Siliconix into chambers to hammer out a settlement. According to Anthony, when everyone emerged, Kozinski thought they had a deal and laid out the terms, but the Siliconix exec shot back that those weren’t the terms.

Kozinksi “was pretty mad,” recalled Anthony who was there. Kozinski immediately transferred the case to Judge Real. Real immediately set the case for trial on a quick and unpredictable timeline.

“It was miserable,” recalls Anthony, who was then at Townsend. But Townsend lawyers clawed their way to final vindication, as today’s story details.

Kozinski's move, in hindsight, seems like perfect revenge from the perspective of a spurned trial judge, but now that Kozinski is running the Ninth Circuit, which is widely criticized for not coming down hard enough on Real, it doesn't seem like anyone's having the last laugh.

— Zusha Elinson

Comments

[Bored Associate]

I don't get it. Was Kozinski sitting as a trial judge at the time?

[Zusha Elinson]

Thanks for the comment. It is a little odd. It is possible that he was sitting by designation. Legal Pad is checking back with our sources as we speak and will have an answer shortly.