(April 7, 2014 – San Francisco, California): Shareholders—represented by Lee Voss—have sued as individuals the CEO Sehat Sutardja, his wife, and the board of Marvell Technology Group Ltd. for failure to license a patent which Marvell knowingly infringed. In 2012 a Pennsylvania jury entered a verdict for the inventor of the patent in the amount of $1.17 billion. The Honorable Nora Barry Fischer affirmed the jury’s verdict which was increased in March by $366 million bringing the total to $1.54 billion. In addition Marvell allegedly paid over $300 million in litigation costs to try the case. Lee Voss and the shareholders argue that the Defendants knew Marvell infringed the patent, refused to license the patent, and such refusal resulted in the loss of billions of dollars as well as the good will and reputation of Marvell. The Northern District of California case—Lee Voss v. Sehat Sutardja et al., 5:14-cv-01581—will undoubtedly give defendants pause as they evaluate how best to resolve infringement litigation.
