Topwire LLC has begun litigating a single semiconductor packaging patent with separate cases against Apple (7:25-cv-00551) in the Western District of Texas and Samsung (2:25-cv-01183) in the Eastern District of Texas. The defendants are accused of infringement through the provision of smartphones that include a "double-layered logic board with two substrates"; for Apple, of the iPhone X-series smartphones and later; and for Samsung, of certain Galaxy 10-series smartphones and later.
The sole patent-in-suit (9,859,202)—described by the plaintiff as directed to a "semiconductor structure for separating and electrically connecting two layered packaging substrates"—comprises a family of one and issued in January 2018 with an estimated priority date in June 2015. Topwire received the patent in a portfolio of two from sole named inventor Dyi-Chung Hu in a March 2025 assignment agreement. In its complaints, Topwire describes Hu as a "leading expert in semiconductor packaging" that has previously "worked for IBM East Fishkill, served as a professor at the National Chao Tung University, served as a member of the Industry Research Organization in Taiwan, and helped pioneer the thin film transistor ("TFT") LCD industry in Taiwan", amongst other things.
Topwire was formed in Texas on February 25, 2025, with Robert Katz—a patent lawyer based in Dallas, Texas, with Katz PLLC—as its manager. Last September, Katz signed as the manager of Sinotechnix LLC in a transfer of six Seoul Semiconductor patents to Supronics LLC, a Delaware NPE that began litigating three of them in a December 2024 case against Home Depot. For more on that campaign, see "Sinotechnix Hands Off Former Seoul Semiconductor Patents to Supronics for Assertion" (December 2024).
Sinotechnix—itself formed in Delaware on May 10, 2022—began litigating its sole litigation campaign with a case against Samsung in July 2024 followed by TCL in August 2025. In a motion brought by Samsung to transfer its case to the District of New Jersey (for convenience), it pointed out that "Katz has sued Samsung at least twice (as counsel of record), both times on similar technologies and products to those at-issue here", citing to separate litigation brought by Lexington Luminance LLC (running from February 2016 through July 2017) and SVV Technology Innovations, Inc. (from February 2020 through February 2021). See "Sinotechnix Sues TCL as Its Case Against Samsung Ends" (August 2025) for additional coverage on that campaign.
The plaintiff alleges that the infringement has been willful, pleading that it had sent letters notifying Apple and Samsung that they sell mobile devices that infringe the '202 patent in July 2025 and September 2025, respectively. The new West Texas case has been assigned to District Judge Alan D. Albright; the East Texas case, to District Judge Rodney Gilstrap. The McCarty Firm P.C. represents the plaintiff in litigation. 12/1, Apple, Western District of Texas; 12/1, Samsung, Eastern District of Texas.
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