Lucy Haeran Koh

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California district Retired 2021 · served 2010–2021 Appointed by Barack Obama (Democratic) 17 signed orders read

Judge Koh no longer hears cases. This profile is preserved as a historical record of how they ruled.

How Judge Koh decides

Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.

What persuades

When an arbitration clause concerned a patent cross-license but the pleaded dispute concerned trade-secret theft, she required a concrete connection rather than accepting a merely asserted route to federal jurisdiction.

“Given these circumstances, the Court concludes that Hynix fails to raise a ‘conceivable’ argument that the arbitration clause in the Patent Cross License Agreement would impact the disposition of this case.”

For permanent injunctive relief in a patent case, she required a causal link between the protected feature and the asserted market harm, and treated a feature's importance to the accused product as central to the equities.

“Especially given the lack of causal nexus, the fact that none of the patented features is core to the functionality of the accused products makes an injunction particularly inappropriate here.”

Where controlling circuit authority answered an accessibility question, she rejected contrary out-of-circuit district decisions.

“the Court finds Defendant’s citations to contrary out-of-circuit district court cases to be unpersuasive.”

Procedural preferences

She enforced the local deadline and page limits for post-reply material, denying a late and oversized attempt to supplement the class-certification record.

“Defendants’ motion failed to comply with this rule as it was filed close to one month after Plaintiffs filed their reply and exceeded the Civil Local Rule’s page limits.”

She treated a party's deliberate decision not to take an available Rule 30(b)(6) deposition as a meaningful gap in the summary-judgment record.

“Plaintiff could have, but chose not to, depose Defendant's Rule 30(b)(6) witness.”

Signed rulings

A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.

Sandisk Corp. v. SK Hynix Inc.
· 2015-03-26
Motions to remand (plaintiff SanDisk) Granted

“For the reasons stated above, SanDisk’s motion to remand the case to Santa Clara County Superior Court is GRANTED.”

Motion to compel arbitration (defendants SK Hynix entities) Denied

“Hynix’s motion to compel arbitration and motion to dismiss for forum non conve-niens are DENIED without prejudice”

Motion to dismiss forum non conveniens (defendants SK Hynix entities) Denied
Request for leave to supplement record (plaintiff SanDisk) Granted

“San-Disk's request is hereby GRANTED.”

United States ex rel. Krawitt v. Infosys Techs. Ltd., Inc.
· 2018-10-16
Motions to dismiss (defendant Apple Inc.) Granted

“Apple's motion to dismiss is GRANTED with leave to amend.”

Motions to dismiss (defendant Infosys Technologies, Ltd.) Moot / procedural

“Infosys' motion to dismiss is DENIED as moot.”

Sikhs for Justice "SFJ", Inc. v. Facebook, Inc.
· 2015-11-13
Motions to dismiss (defendant Facebook, Inc.) Granted

“the Court GRANTS Defendant’s motion to dismiss Plaintiffs Title II claim with prejudice and Plaintiffs state law claims without prejudice.”

Anti slapp motion to strike and fees (defendant Facebook, Inc.) Moot / procedural

“The Court DENIES as moot Defendant’s motion to strike and for attorney’s fees and costs.”

Request for judicial notice (defendant Facebook, Inc.) Moot / procedural

“The Court DENIES as moot Defendant’s request for judicial notice.”

Kalani v. Starbucks Corp.
· 2015-02-25
Summary judgment (defendant Starbucks Corporation) Denied

“the Court DENIES Defendant’s motion for summary judgment.”

Summary judgment (plaintiff Robert Kalani) Granted in part

“The Court GRANTS in part and DENIES in part Plaintiffs motion for summary judgment”

Datta v. Asset Recovery Solutions, LLC
· 2016-06-07
Summary judgment (defendant Asset Recovery Solutions, LLC) Granted in part

“Defendant’s motion for summary judgment is GRANTED as to whether the bar code and reference number violate the FDCPA, and DENIED as to whether Defendant’s name, as displayed on Plaintiffs envelope, violates the FDCPA.”

Summary judgment (plaintiff Meena Arthur Datta) Denied

“Plaintiffs motion for summary judgment is DENIED.”

First Mercury Insurance Co. v. Great Divide Insurance Co.
· 2017-03-14
Summary judgment (defendant Great Divide Insurance Company) Denied

“the Court DENIES Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment”

Summary judgment (plaintiff First Mercury Insurance Company) Granted in part

“The Court otherwise GRANTS Plaintiffs Motion for Summary Judgment.”

Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. v. A10 Networks, Inc.
· 2012-01-06
Summary judgment (defendants and counterclaimants A10 Networks, Lee Chen, and Rajkumar Jalan) Denied

“AlO’s motions for summary judgment are DENIED and Brocade’s motion for summary judgment is GRANTED.”

Summary judgment (defendants and counterclaimants A10 Networks, Lee Chen, and Rajkumar Jalan) Denied
Summary judgment (plaintiff and counterdefendant Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.) Granted
Motions to strike (plaintiff and counterdefendant Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.) Denied

“The Court disagrees and DENIES Brocade's motion to strike.”

Columbia Casualty Co. v. Gordon Trucking, Inc.
· 2010-12-13
Motion for partial summary judgment (counterdefendant and crossclaimant AISLIC) Granted in part

“AISLIC’s motion for partial summary judgment is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part.”

Request for judicial notice (Columbia Casualty Company) Granted

“Columbia’s request for judicial notice, as clarified above, is GRANTED.”

Ciampi v. City of Palo Alto
· 2011-05-11
Summary judgment (defendants City of Palo Alto and police employees) Granted in part

“the Court GRANTS in part and DENIES in part Defendants’ motion for summary judgment.”

Motion for leave to seek reconsideration (plaintiff Joseph Ciampi) Denied

“the Court DENIES Plaintiffs request for leave to file the proposed motions for reconsideration.”

In re High-Tech Employee Antitrust Litigation
· 2013-04-05
Class certification (plaintiffs) Granted in part

“the Court GRANTS in part and DENIES in part Plaintiffs’ Motion for Class Certification with leave to amend.”

Motions to strike (defendants) Denied

“The Court DENIES Defendants’ Motion to Strike”

Request to strike expert materials (plaintiffs) Granted in part

“GRANTS in part and DENIES in part Plaintiffs’ request to strike Defendants’ expert report and certain employee declarations.”

Administrative motion to supplement record (defendants) Denied

“the Court DENIES Defendants’ Joint Administrative Motion for Leave to Supplement the Record in Support of Defendants’ Opposition to Class Certification.”

Nitsch v. Dreamworks Animation SKG Inc.
· 2015-04-24
Motion to compel arbitration and stay (defendants) Granted in part

“the Court GRANTS in part and DENIES in part Defendants’ motion to compel arbitration and stay proceedings.”

Apple, Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co.
· 2013-01-29
Motion for judgment as a matter of law (plaintiff Apple Inc.) Granted in part

“GRANTS Apple’s motion for judgment as a matter of law that claims 10 and 15 of the '941 Patent are invalid”

Motion for new trial (plaintiff Apple Inc.) Denied

“DENIES Apple’s motion in the alternative for a new trial.”

A historical record

Judge Koh no longer hears cases. This profile stays available as a record of how they ruled. If you're preparing for a matter, start from the court's current bench.