Navitas Sues Renesas in Marshall on Four GaN Patents. Venue Rests on the Alien Statute.

On August 10, 2026, Navitas Semiconductor Ireland, LLC, of Torrance, sued Renesas Electronics Corporation, of Tokyo, in the Eastern District of Texas, No. 2:26-cv-00676, assigned to Judge Rodney Gilstrap. Counsel is Armond Wilson. The complaint asserts four gallium-nitride patents and seeks damages, enhanced damages under section 284, a permanent injunction, fees under section 285, and a jury. There is no preliminary-injunction request. Willfulness is pleaded on all counts.

The four patents

The complaint asserts U.S. Patent Nos. 9,929,079 (Leadless Electronic Packages For GaN Devices, issued March 27, 2018, exemplary claim 1), 11,770,010 (Half-Bridge Circuit Using Separately Packaged GaN Power Devices, issued September 26, 2023, claim 19), 11,545,838 (same title, issued January 3, 2023, claim 18), and 11,862,996 (Pulsed Level Shift And Inverter Circuits For GaN Devices, issued January 2, 2024, claim 1). Claim 1 of the '079 patent recites an electronic component with first, second, and third leads, a semiconductor device attached to the first lead, source, drain, and input terminals coupled to the three leads, and an electrically insulative encapsulant. Claims 19 and 18 of the half-bridge patents recite converters with low-side and high-side GaN circuits on separately packaged devices, the low-side drain connected to the high-side source as the switch node. Claim 1 of the '996 patent recites a half-bridge using first (low-side) and second (high-side) GaN lateral HEMTs on separate GaN substrates containing only that transistor. Those are the complaint's exemplary claims, not a construction.

The accused SuperGaN SKUs

Count I (the '079 patent) accuses the SuperGaN FET TP65H070G4LSGBEA and listed TP65 and TP70 SuperGaN FETs in PQFN, TOLL, and TOLT packages. Counts II through IV accuse the SuperGaN bidirectional switch TP65B110HRU, the same SuperGaN FET family, Renesas drivers ISL71441M, ISL73041SEH, ISL73033SLHM, ISL71040M, ISL70040SEH, and ISL73040SEH, and use in a half-bridge on the RTDACHB0000RS-MF-1 evaluation board. The '079 count is pleaded as direct infringement. The half-bridge counts add inducement.

Venue, notice, and willfulness

Venue is pleaded under 28 U.S.C. 1391(c)(3): Renesas is not a U.S. resident and allegedly owns or operates no U.S. facilities, so it may be sued in any district. Notice is alleged by a letter on or before August 2026. Knowledge of the '079 patent is also alleged through the Transphorm acquisition, including an information disclosure statement citing the '079 application on November 1, 2021.

The likely path

The probabilistic call is a Marshall competitor case on GaN packaging and half-bridge circuits, with the usual claim-construction and invalidity fights. Expect Renesas to test the alien-venue theory and the Transphorm-knowledge story on willfulness. None of that is a prediction that Navitas establishes infringement.

What to watch next

Renesas's response; whether the SuperGaN SKU list shrinks at contention time; and whether the '079 packaging claim and the half-bridge claims travel together or get severed in claim construction.