Ph.D.- Computer Science, Stanford University.; over 30 years in computer systems, software, input/output, and hard disk; experience with Intel, Microsoft and many others; neutral advisor to two federal judges.

SUMMARY OF EXPERIENCE:

Dr. Levy is a technical leader in the computer, software and hard disk industry with over thirty years experience; Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University.

Areas of expertise include:

• Bus design – system bus - local area network – LAN – bus bridge
• Standards - ATA – ATAPI – IDE - 1394 FireWire I-Link - SCSI - Futurebus
• Computer design – CPU – multiprocessor – I/O controller – input/output
• Memory design – memory controller – cache – Flash memory – RAM, ROM
• Hard disk – RAID – storage network – SAN – NAS
• Internet protocol – http – cookies – web server
• Software - firmware - embedded systems
• Operating system - file system – file server – file access protocol
• Simulation - performance - benchmark

Inventor on seven patents and author of a book and several published technical papers.

An expert in over 40 cases, testified in deposition and at trial; technical advisor to two Federal District Court judges.

Summary of Expert Witness Experience:

• Engaged as an expert in over 47 cases
• Testimony at trial or arbitration in 5 cases
• Testimony at Markman or tutorial in 4 cases
• Deposition in 13 cases
• Expert report or declaration in 21 cases
• Expert (neutral) advisor to Court in 3 cases

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

1999 to Present  & 1982 to 1992 
John Levy Consulting
Management Consultant

• Management of engineering of computers, software and storage devices.
• General business consulting for small firms, both for-profit and nonprofit.
• Expert witness in intellectual property and contract dispute cases.

1993 to 1998
Quantum Corporation
Director, Systems Engineering

• Hired and managed an engineering organization of 27 people;
• Made Quantum a leader in hard disk interface technology - ATA/33, /66, SCSI-160M;
• Developed software/hardware tools for firmware & system validation;
• Led disk drive performance enhancements in caching, system performance modeling & simulation, Windows 98/NT software drivers.

1979 to 1982 
Apple Computer, Inc.
Engineering Supervisor

• Hardware & firmware development of local area network, Lisa development team;
• Design of hardware/firmware interpreter for Pascal p-machine.

1977 to 1979 
Tandem Computer, Inc.
Senior Engineer

• Advanced development of next-generation multi-processor systems; 
• Work on rollback-recovery in distributed databases.

1972 to 1977 
Digital Equipment Corp.
Consulting Engineer

• Development of computer hardware & operating system software; I/O subsystems development; bus design for high-speed I/O channels and for minicomputer systems.

EDUCATION:

• Ph.D., Computer Science, Stanford University, 1973
• M.S., Electrical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, 1966
• B. Engineering Physics, Cornell University, 1965

PUBLICATIONS:

• Get Out of the Way: How to Manage Development of Timely, Innovative and Relevant Products, Cupertino, CA: Happy About Publishing, May, 2010
• If Extreme Programming is Good Management, What Were We Doing Before? EDN Magazine, November 13, 2003.
• Twelve Things to Ask Your Software Development Team, ComputerWorld Online, September 22, 2003.
• A File Structure for Non-Erasable Media, with Wayne Wang, Ninth IEEE Symposium on Mass Storage Systems, pp. 72-76, 1988. also published as “An Operating System-Independent WORM File System” in Software for Optical Storage, Meckler Corp., 1989, pp. 23-54
• Small Image Retrieval System, with Wayne Wang, Ricoh Technical Report No. 16, pp. 93-95, 1987.
• Buses, the Backbone of Computer Structures, chapter 11 of Computer Engineering, ed. by Bell et al., Digital Press, 1978.
• Computing with Multiple Microprocessors, (Ph.D. Thesis) Stanford Linear Accelerator Center Report No. 161, 1973

U.S. PATENTS:

4,245,303

• 1981
• Memory for Data Processing System with Command and Data Buffering

4,229,791

• 1980
• Distributed Arbitration Circuitry for Data Processing System

4,232,366

• 1980
• Bus for a Data Processing System with Overlapped Sequences

4,045,781

• 1977
• Memory Module with Selectable Byte Addressing for Digital Data Processing System

4,007,448

• 1977
• Drive for Connection to Multiple Controllers in a Digital Data Secondary Storage Facility

3,999,163

• 1976 
• Secondary Storage Facility for Data Processing Systems

3,911,400

• 1975
• Drive Condition Detecting Circuit for Secondary Storage Facilities in Data Processing Systems

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS & AWARDS:

• Association for Computing Machinery
• Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
  • Computer Society – National Lecturer on bus design
  • Technology Management Council
• Forensic Expert Witness Association

UNIVERSITY-LEVEL TEACHING:

University of San Francisco, From Institute for Lifelong Learning

• 2012, 2010, 2008, 2006 The Digital Revolution in the Home
• 2011, 2009, 2007, 2005 Computers - the Inside Story
• 2006 High Tech Business in the Era of Globalization

San Francisco State University

• 1980-81 Computer Input/Output Architecture

LITIGATION SUPPORT EXPERIENCE:

2011-2012:

CSR v. Freescale 3:12-cv-02619-RS NDist CA

• Patents related to serial interface
• Role: expert for Plaintiff CSR
• Status: in discovery
• DLA Piper – Palo Alto & San Francisco
• Timothy Lohse 650 833-2055

Mediatek v. Freescale 4:11-cv-05341-YGR NDist CA

• Patents related to bus priority and transfers
• Role: expert for Plaintiff Mediatek
• Status: in discovery
• Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr – Palo Alto & New York
• Adele Frankel 212 937 7273

Avid v. Harmonic 1:99-0999 Dist Delaware

• Patent related to streams of data between storage units
• Role: expert for Defendant Harmonic
• Status: in discovery
• Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati – San Francisco
• Robin Brewer 415 947-2000

Robocast v. Microsoft 1:10-cv-01055 Dist. Delaware

• Patent related to automated browsing system
• Role: expert for Defendant Microsoft
• Status: in discovery
• Fish & Richardson – Boston
• Sivananda Reddy 617 521-7085

Summit Data Systems v. EMC & NetApp 1:10-cv-00749-GMS Dist Del

• Patents related to file access over multiple network connections
• Role: expert for Plaintiff Summit Data Systems, expert report
• Status: expert report completed
• Morris, Manning & Martin LLP – Atlanta
• Bryan Harrison 404 504-7619

Tropicana Las Vegas v. Weseri et al. Clark County, NV, Case no. A618625

• Breach of contract dispute related to in-room television services
• Role: expert for Plaintiff Tropicana Las Vegas, expert report
• Status: expert report completed
• Glaser Weil Fink Jacobs Howard Avchen & Shapiro LLP – Los Angeles
• Brad Parr 310 282-6241

Advanced Processor Technologies v. Analog Devices et al. 2:11-cv-00019-JRG EDistTX

• Patents related to instruction cache, translation lookaside buffers, virtual pages
• Role: expert for co-defendant Marvell
• Status: pending
• Fish & Richardson P.C., Redwood City, CA
• Jerry Yen 650 839-5012
• Joseph Colaianni, Jr. 202 626-6434

Mentor Graphics v. EVE-USA 3:10 CV 10-954 HU Dist. Ore

• Patent related to circuit design emulation
• Role: expert for defendant EVE
• Status: pending
• Cooley LLP, Palo Alto
• Ricardo Rodriguez 650 843-5000

Inter Partes Reexamination of US Patent 6,993,661, Reexam control no. 95/000.543

• [see related litigation below: Garfinkle v. Decru and Network Appliance 5:07cv19]
• Patent related to sanitizing disk storage units
• Role: expert for patentee Garfinkle; expert declaration in reexam
• Fortkort & Houston, P.C., Austin, TX
• Michael Fortkort 703 435-9390

MonkeyMedia v. Apple, 1:10-cv-00319
MonkeyMedia v. Buena Vista et al. 1:10-CV-00533

• Patents related to user interfaces with salience controls; seamlessly expanding;
• Role: expert for plaintiff MonkeyMedia; Expert report, deposition & testimony in Markman
• Status: awaiting reexam
• Graves Dougherty Hearon & Moody, Austin
• Steven Smit 512 480-5653

Crossroads Systems v. 3PAR et al. 1:10-cv-652-SS
Crossroads Systems v. Infortrend Corp. et al. 1:10-cv-104-SS

• Patents related to virtual local storage
• Role: expert for plaintiff Crossroads Systems; expert report for Markman
• Status: Settled
• Sprinkle IP Law Group, Austin
• Steven Sprinkle 512 637-9221
• Elizabeth Brown Fore 512 637-9220
• John Adair 512 637-9223

In the matter of certain USB portable storage devices, ITC 337-TA-788

• Patents related to encryption in flash drives
• Role: expert for Respondent Imation; Expert Reports, deposition
• Status: complaint withdrawn after expert report & deposition
• Dorsey & Whitney, New York & Minneapolis
• Paul Ackerman 212 415-9372
• John Levy, Ph.D. 415 663-1818 Litigation Support Experience December 13, 2012

In the matter of certain DRAM and NAND flash memory devices ITC 337-TA- 803

• Patents related to memory chip design
• Role: expert for Complainant Intellectual Ventures; Expert Report, deposition, testimony in Markman
• Status: my role as expert carried only through Markman hearing
• Irell & Manella, Los Angeles
• Brian Ledahl 310-203-7927

Enova v. Initio et al. 10-004-LPS Dist Del

• Patents related to disk data encryption
• Role: expert for defendants including Western Digital
• Status: case taken over by K&L Gates
• Connolly Bove Lodge & Hutz, Los Angeles
• Manuel Nelson 213 787-2515

Garfinkle v. Decru and Network Appliance 5:07cv19

• Patent related to sanitizing disk storage units
• Role: expert for plaintiff Garfinkle; expert declaration
• Status: patent reexamination pending
• Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossman, New York
• Joshua Raskin 212 554-1590

Convolve v. Dell et al. 2:08-cv-244 E Dist TX

• Patents related to hard disk drive management
• Role: expert for co-defendant Western Digital; trial testimony, expert report; deposition
• Status: trial complete, jury awarded minimal damages
• Irell & Manella, Los Angeles
• Garland Kelley 310 203-7968
• Richard Birnholz 310 203-7052

Xpoint Technologies v. Intel et al. 09-CV-0026 SLR

• Patents related to backup & recovery in computers
• Role: expert for plaintiff Xpoint Technologies - expert report on infringement
• Status: settled
• Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossman, New York
• Chad Johnson 212 554-1396
• Sughrue Mion, Washington, DC
• John Rabena 202 663-7472
• Kelly Hyndman 202 663-7404

Lenovo v. Shuttle, 5:08-CV-3454 JF

• Patents related to BIOS and power management
• Role: expert for defendant Shuttle
• Status: settled
• Sidley Austin, Palo Alto
• Robert Morrill 650 565-7010
• Peter Kang 650 565-7006

2009-2010:

Mirror Worlds v. Apple 6:08-CV-88 LED

• Patents related to stream-based information management
• Role: expert for plaintiff Mirror Worlds; trial testimony, expert report, deposition
• Status: jury award overruled by JMOL; validity affirmed; CAFC affirmed JMOL
• Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, New York
• Joseph Diamante 212 806-5472
• Ken Stein 212 806-5491
• Ireland Carroll & Kelley, Tyler, TX
• Otis Carroll 903 561-1600

Watson v. Raytheon 37-2008-00084769-CU-OE-CTL

• Class action related to wage & hour laws for software engineers
• Role: expert for defendant Raytheon; expert declaration
• Status: settled
• DLA Piper, San Diego
• John Fitzsimmons 619 699-2972
• Rick Storms 619 699 3526

2008-2009:

Convolve v. Compaq 00 Civ. 5141 (JSM)

• Patents and trade secrets related to hard disk drive management
• Role: testifying expert for defendant Compaq (HP); expert report; deposition
• Status: MSJ filed
• Bartlit Beck Herman, Chicago
• Chris Landgraff 312 494-4477
• Brian O’Donoghue 312 494-4402

Network Appliance v. Sun Microsystems 3:07-cv-06053-EDL

• Patents related to storage networks
• Role: expert for defendant Sun Microsystems; testimony at tutorial and Markman hearing
• Status: settled
• DLA Piper, Washington, DC & Reston, VA
• Clayton Thompson 703 773-4143

CCCC v. Intel, C 05-01766 RMW (HRL)

• Patent related to cache coherency in multiple-bus systems
• Role: expert for defendant Intel, expert report for claim construction, testimony at tutorials
• Status: MSJ granted with respect to non-infringement
• Morrison & Foerster, San Francisco, Palo Alto & Los Angeles
• Jim Bennett 415 268-7169
• Karl Kramer 650 813-5775
• Hector Gallegos 213 892-5255

Chamberlain v. Overhead Door 08-CV-3806

• Patent related to garage door operator
• Role: expert for defendant Overhead Door; expert report & deposition
• Status: settled;
• Latham & Watkins, Chicago
• Ken Schuler 312 876-7700
• Kevin May 312 876-7677

OPTi v. AMD et al. 2:07-cv-278 TJW

• Patents related to low-pin-count bus for PC
• Role: consulting expert for defendant AMD
• Status: pending
• Ropes & Gray, Palo Alto
• Gabrielle Higgins 650 617-4015

PC Doctor v. Ultra-X, CV06-1729 (GAF)

• Patent related to USB bus testers
• Role: expert for defendant Ultra-X
• Status: settled
• Tingley Piontkowski, San Jose
• Bruce Piontkowski 408 283-7000

McCabe v. Dell CV06-7811 GAF
Carideo v. Dell C06-1772 JLR

• Class actions related to putative PC failures
• Role: consulting expert for defendant Dell
• Status: unknown
• Reeves & Brightwell, Austin, TX
• Kim Brightwell 512 334-4502

Ecompare v. Priceline.com C07-00236 JW

• Trade secrets related to software technology
• Role: expert for defendant Priceline.com; expert declaration
• Status: settled
• Sedgwick Detert Moran & Arnold, Los Angeles
• James Nelson 213 615-8084

ProMOS Technologies v. Freescale Semiconductor C06-788 (JJF)

• Patents related to cache memories
• Role: consulting expert on invalidity for defendant Freescale
• Status: settled
• Jones Day, Cleveland, OH
• F. Drexel Feeling 216 586-7199

Griffin v. Dell Canada 06-CV-309738 CP

• Class action related to putative computer failures
• Role: expert for defendant Dell Canada; expert declaration, deposition; inspection of units
• Status: pending
• Gowling Lafleur Henderson, Toronto
• Malcolm Ruby 416 862-4314

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies v. Samsung Electronics 9:06-cv-276 RHC

• Patents related to hard disk design
• Role: expert for plaintiff HGST; expert declaration for claim construction
• Status: settled
• McDermott, Will & Emery, Washington, DC
• Michael Connelly 202 756-8037

2006 - 2007:

Pub Util Dist No. 1 of Snohomish County, WA v. Black & Veatch Construction

• J A M S Arbitration no. 1160015776
• Contract dispute related to design and installation of hardware and software
• Role: testimony and expert report for respondent Black & Veatch
• Status: arbitration ruling issued
• Husch & Eppenberger, Kansas City
• Leonard Wagner 816 283-4634
• John Power 816 283-4651

EchoStar v. TiVo, 5:05-cv-81-DF-CMC

• Patents related to video stream storage
• Role: expert for plaintiff EchoStar
• Status: patent re-exam pending
• Morrison & Foerster, Palo Alto
• Marc Pernick 650 813-5718

2005-2006:

Gateway v. HP, 04-cv-0613-B

• Patent related to disk drive reserve area
• Role: expert for defendant Hewlett-Packard
• Status: settled; HP received $47 million in cross-license agreement
• involving this patent and many others
• DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary, Palo Alto
• Brent Yamashita 650 833-2348

LG Electronics v. FIC, 2002 HC C No. 02150

• (European) patent on memory controller
• Role: expert for defendant FIC
• Status: expert report & rebuttal report completed
• NautaDutilh NV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• Charles Gielen Charles.Gielen@nautadutilh.com
• Maaike de Jong Maaike.deJong@nautadutilh.com

Chang v. SBC, San Francisco Superior Unlimited Action No. CGC-04-434039

• Personal injury suit on behalf of an ASIC design engineer
• Role: testifying expert for plaintiff Chang, deposition
• Status: settled
• Meisel & Krentsa, San Francisco,
• Andrew Meisel 415 788-2035

SEC matter regarding Quovadx, Inc., HO-9822

• Role: consultant related to software industry practice for beta test sites
• Status: expert declaration submitted as part of response to Wells Notice
• Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati, Palo Alto
• Jared Kopel 650 493-9300

[individual v. a major PC manufacturer]

• Potential class action suit related to alleged PC failures
• Role: consultant for defendant [name withheld]; testing of PC units
• Status: settled
• Morgan Lewis & Bockius, Philadelphia
• Barry McCoy 215 963-5896

Measurement Computing v. National Instruments, 03-10107REK (D. Mass)

• Patent related to industrial control computer systems
• Role: consultant for plaintiff Softwire
• Status: settled
• Cesari & McKenna, Boston
• Martin O’Donnell 617 951-3046
• Mike Reinemann 617 951-3060

Micron v. Motorola, A04-CA-007, A04-CA-390-LY

• Patent related to ATA interface
• Role: consultant for defendant Motorola
• Status: settled
• Merchant & Gould, Atlanta & Minneapolis
• George Jordan 404 954-5088
• Tom Strouse 612 336-4606

Seagate Technology v. Atmel Corp., Santa Clara County Superior Court CV809883

• Product liability related to putative EEPROM chip failures in disk drives
• Role: expert for defendant Atmel; data mining in failure analysis database; repair center inspection
• Status: settled
• Farella Braun + Martel, San Francisco, CA
• Nan Joesten 415 954-4415
• Bob Holtzapple 415 954-4939

2003-2004:

F5 Networks v. Radware, Inc., C03-688P

• Patent related to web servers, cookies, http protocol, networking
• Role: neutral expert (technical advisor to Court); tutorial for Court; attended Markman hearing
• Status: settled after Markman hearing
• U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington, Seattle
• Hon. Marsha Pechman

Matsushita Kotobuki Electronics v. Maxtor & Quantum, C03-05860 JF

• Patents and trade secrets related to hard disk manufacturing
• Role: expert for plaintiff MKE; factory visit to identify trade secrets
• Status: settled; plaintiff received cash and patent rights in settlement
• Weil, Gotshal & Manges, New York – Salvatore Romanello 212 310-8454
• Dewey Ballantine, New York – Allan Garcia 212 259-6196

LG Electronics v. FIC et al., C01-01594 CW, C01-00326 CW

• Patents on memory controller and multiprocessor cache
• Role: testifying expert for defendants FIC and Asustek
• Status: expert report & deposition completed; favorable ruling on summary judgment
• Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, Palo Alto
• Ronald LeMieux 650 843-5499 (Cooley LLP)
• Marc Sockol 650 815-2602 (Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton)

LG Electronics v. FIC et al., C01-01375 CW

• Patents on memory controller and multiprocessor cache
• Role: testifying expert for defendant Compal
• Status: expert report & deposition completed; favorable ruling on summary judgment
• Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, Menlo Park
• Kai Tseng 650 614-7688
• Rowena Y. Young 650 614-7370

Brookhaven Typeset Services v. Adobe C01-20813-RMW

• Alleged misappropriation of software trade secrets and copyright infringement
• Role: neutral expert (technical advisor to Court); report on “meet & confer” session
• Status: pending
• U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, San Jose
• Hon. Ronald Whyte

Oak Technologies v. UMC, 97-20959 RMW, C 97-21126 RMW

• Patent on CD ROM controller chip
• Role: neutral expert (technical advisor to Court); review of proposed Markman order
• Status: pending
• U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, San Jose
• Hon. Ronald Whyte

(no cases from 1989 to 1999)

1988:

NEC v. Intel Corp, C-84-20799-WPG

• Alleged copyright infringement of on-chip microcode
• Role: consultant, extensive pre-trial preparation for plaintiff NEC
• Status: completed; NEC won on 3 of 4 points regarding copyright
• Skjerven, Morrill, McPherson, Franklin & Friel, Santa Clara, CA
• Alan McPherson

1986:

Seattle Computer Products v. Microsoft

• King County Superior Court, State of Washington 86-2-02195-7
• Contract dispute involving sale and licensing of DOS operating system
• Role: testifying expert for plaintiff Seattle Computer Products; deposition and trial testimony
• Status: settled during jury deliberation; plaintiff received settlement of $925,000
• Bogle & Gates, Seattle, WA
• J. Peter Shapiro J.P.Shapiro@comcast.net

1978:

Digital Equipment Corp v. Microcomputer Systems Corp

• Patents on peripheral controller bus
• Role: percipient witness as inventor for plaintiff Digital, deposition and trial testimony
• U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, San Francisco
• Cesari & McKenna, Boston
• Martin O’Donnell 617 951-3046

​

OTHER CONSULTING ENGAGEMENTS:

American Automobile Association (AAA of Northern California, Nevada & Utah)

• Consulting on business and management issues related to IT projects and Agile software development
• Mark Williams, Director, Market Capabilities - Sales & Market Development 415 565-2680
• Craig Butler, VP, eBusiness 415 241-3277

Aceurity, Inc. (semiconductor design & marketing for high-definition video consumer devices)

• Consulting on intellectual property, business partnerships, hard disk storage, general business issues
• Vijay Desai, CEO & CMO 510 673-7863
• Pankaj Patel, CTO 408 888-3441

Reactrix Systems, Inc. (designs and manufactures interactive video display systems)

• Consulting on intellectual property strategy, evaluation of patent applications and competitive technology
• Matthew Bell, Chief Scientist 650 400-6288
• Peter Bardwick, CFO 415 385-4523

Pure Digital Technologies, Inc. [later part of Cisco Consumer Products]

• (designed and manufactured the Flip digital video camera)
• Evaluation of patent applications and search for further patentable inventions;
• Consultation for VP-Engineering on product development process and engineering organization
• John Furlan, VP-Engineering jofurlan@cisco.com
• Andre Neumann-Loreck, VP-Operations/Manufacturing 415 519-3954

Veritas Software Corporation

• Independent audit of a Cisco/IBM Storage Area Network software product, to determine compliance with a Cisco/Veritas contractual agreement
• Latham & Watkins, Chicago
• David Nelson 312 876-7700