Semiconductors
O’Melveny’s technology-savvy lawyers help design legal and business solutions as creative and forward-thinking as our semiconductor clients.
O’Melveny’s technology-savvy lawyers help design legal and business solutions as creative and forward-thinking as our semiconductor clients.
With lawyers steeped in microchip technology, our team helps design legal and business solutions as creative and forward-thinking as our semiconductor clients. We know that the needs of global conglomerates differ from those of specialized niche suppliers. And we tailor our approach with that in mind, ensuring that companies big and small receive the guidance that every stage of corporate development requires.
Our team features former engineers at AMD and Intel, lawyers whose backgrounds have equipped them with a deep understanding of microprocessors, memory chips, integrated circuits, systems on a chip, and related technology. By marrying that affinity for our clients’ innovations with first-rate legal advocacy skills, we consistently offer semiconductor companies the highest quality of representation in patent, trade secrets, and technology-intense litigation, including cases that lie at the intersection of antitrust and patent law.
On the corporate side, our lawyers are trusted board-level advisors skilled in every facet of our clients’ business. From cross-border, high-value mergers and acquisitions to technology licensing, due diligence, and access to venture and capital markets, we seek out opportunities for our clients to grow while staying alert to potential landmines such as chip shortages, supply chain security, export restrictions, shifting government policies, and environmental concerns.
O’Melveny also counsels semiconductor clients on the latest national security laws affecting the industry. We help them assess the CHIPS Act’s financial incentives, investment limits, security standards, and other rules and restrictions, as well as apply for funding under the Act. And, we advise on recent export control laws that prohibit the export of advanced computing and semiconductor manufacturing items to China as well as transactions related to supercomputer end-uses in China. No matter what the challenge may be, our aim is always to advance our clients’ business goals.
Served as lead counsel for AMD in history-making antitrust and intellectual property litigation against Intel Corporation, which resulted in a record-breaking US$1.25 billion payment by Intel to AMD.
Advised this leading semiconductor and infrastructure software solutions company in its pending US$61 billion acquisition of enterprise software leader VMware, a deal that would be the third-largest tech M&A deal in history and the largest acquisition ever completed by a semiconductor company.
Achieved multiple precedent-setting wins at trial and on appeal in patent infringement cases against Synopsys, Inc. involving EDA technology, resulting in a settlement that included a US$65 million payment from Synopsys.
Guided Microsemi Corporation, a provider of semiconductor and system solutions, through an ambitious growth strategy, including nearly two dozen acquisitions of public and private chip companies such as Actel, AML Communications, PMC-Sierra, Symmetricom, Vitesse, White Electronic Designs, and Zarlink, culminating in the company’s US$10.3 billion acquisition by Microchip Technology.
Achieved a series of knock-out victories for Samsung—affirmed in 2022 by the Ninth Circuit—dismissing class action antitrust claims alleging that our client and others conspired to restrict the global supply of dynamic random access memory chips, causing DRAM prices to soar.
Secured a headline-making win for SK Hynix in its long-running patent and antitrust DRAM dispute with Rambus Inc. when a judge ordered Rambus to pay US$250 million in sanctions for destroying evidence.