Lucy Haeran Koh
How Judge Koh rules, drawn from 17 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
Judge Koh left this court for the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. This profile is preserved as a historical record of how they ruled here.
About Judge Koh
Lucy Haeran Koh was a judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Appointed by President Barack Obama, Judge Koh received a commission on June 9, 2010. Judge Koh left the court on December 15, 2021 on appointment to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
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.
“For the reasons stated above, SanDisk’s motion to remand the case to Santa Clara County Superior Court is GRANTED.”
“Hynix’s motion to compel arbitration and motion to dismiss for forum non conve-niens are DENIED without prejudice”
“San-Disk's request is hereby GRANTED.”
“Apple's motion to dismiss is GRANTED with leave to amend.”
“Infosys' motion to dismiss is DENIED as moot.”
“the Court GRANTS Defendant’s motion to dismiss Plaintiffs Title II claim with prejudice and Plaintiffs state law claims without prejudice.”
“The Court DENIES as moot Defendant’s motion to strike and for attorney’s fees and costs.”
“The Court DENIES as moot Defendant’s request for judicial notice.”
“the Court DENIES Defendant’s motion for summary judgment.”
“The Court GRANTS in part and DENIES in part Plaintiffs motion for summary judgment”
“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.”
“Plaintiffs motion for summary judgment is DENIED.”
“the Court DENIES Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment”
“The Court otherwise GRANTS Plaintiffs Motion for Summary Judgment.”
“AlO’s motions for summary judgment are DENIED and Brocade’s motion for summary judgment is GRANTED.”
“The Court disagrees and DENIES Brocade's motion to strike.”
“AISLIC’s motion for partial summary judgment is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part.”
“Columbia’s request for judicial notice, as clarified above, is GRANTED.”
“the Court GRANTS in part and DENIES in part Defendants’ motion for summary judgment.”
“the Court DENIES Plaintiffs request for leave to file the proposed motions for reconsideration.”
“the Court GRANTS in part and DENIES in part Plaintiffs’ Motion for Class Certification with leave to amend.”
“The Court DENIES Defendants’ Motion to Strike”
“GRANTS in part and DENIES in part Plaintiffs’ request to strike Defendants’ expert report and certain employee declarations.”
“the Court DENIES Defendants’ Joint Administrative Motion for Leave to Supplement the Record in Support of Defendants’ Opposition to Class Certification.”
“the Court GRANTS in part and DENIES in part Defendants’ motion to compel arbitration and stay proceedings.”
“GRANTS Apple’s motion for judgment as a matter of law that claims 10 and 15 of the '941 Patent are invalid”
“DENIES Apple’s motion in the alternative for a new trial.”
Pending matters in the official report
Judge Koh was last listed in the Civil Justice Reform Act report as of March 31, 2023.
| Motions pending more than six months | 0 |
| Bench trials submitted more than six months | 0 |
| Bankruptcy appeals pending more than six months | 0 |
| Social Security appeals pending more than six months | 0 |
| Civil cases pending more than three years | 0 |
| Report | Motions over six months | Cases over three years |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 2023 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2022 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2022 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2021 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2021 | 0 | 1 |
| Sep 2020 | 0 | 0 |
A snapshot on that date: matters listed may since have been decided or reassigned. A motion referred to a magistrate judge is counted for both judges. Motions in multidistrict litigation, section 2255 cases and Social Security appeals are not counted, and a very large three-year count is generally a multidistrict docket. Source: Appendix A of the report (PDF); about the report.
A historical record
Judge Koh left this court for the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. This profile stays available as a record of how they ruled here. If you're preparing for a matter, start from the court's current bench.