DDR Team

Ian Crosby
Attorney at Law, Susman & Godfrey

In 2011, Mr. Crosby appeared as lead counsel for AllVoice Developments U.S. LLC in a suit against Microsoft for infringement of patents relating to speech recognition interface technology that was transferred to the Western District of Washington from the Eastern District of Texas.

In 2009, Mr. Crosby prepared the motion that that resulted in a complete defense summary judgment in favor of his client Arctic Slope Regional Corporation on a $100 million claim by a broker for a commission on a government contract.

In 2008, Mr. Crosby helped client C2 Communications Technologies, Inc., recover a total of $17.625 million in a patent infringement suit against major telecommunications carriers. In September 2008, Mr. Crosby tried the case to a jury before the Hon. T. John Ward in the Eastern District of Texas at Marshall against defendants Qwest Communications Corp., Global Crossing Telecommunications, Inc., and Level 3 Communications, LLC. The case settled for $9.5 million after the third day of trial, following the close of C2?s case-in-chief and Mr. Crosby?s cross-examination of the defendants? non-infringement expert. Previously, former defendants AT&T Corp., Verizon Communications, Inc., and Sprint Communications Co., LP, each settled prior to trial for a combined $8.125 million.

In 2007, Mr. Crosby represented Two-Way Media, LLC, at trial to a jury in a patent case against AOL LLC before the Hon. Hayden Head in the Southern District of Texas in Corpus Christi. The case settled for a confidential amount after the first week of trial. Mr. Crosby currently represents Two-Way Media in another suit in the same court against defendants Akamai Technologies, Inc., AT&T, Inc., and several AT&T subsidiaries. Limelight Networks, Inc., was also a defendant in that case before it settled with Two-Way Media for a confidential amount in September 2008. Mr. Crosby represents Two-Way Media in a pending suit against AT&T in the Western District of Texas.

Also in 2007, Mr. Crosby assisted Burst.com in obtaining a $10 million settlement in a patent suit against Apple Inc. in the Northern District of California. From 2006 through 2008, Mr. Crosby helped client Lin Packaging, Ltd., obtain settlements in confidential amounts from chip-makers Samsung, Hynix, Nanya, Infineon, Qimonda, and ProMOS in a series of patent lawsuits in the Eastern District of Texas involving microchip-packaging technology.

In the area of antitrust, Mr. Crosby played a major role in the preparation of Novell's claims against Microsoft and in the negotiating process that produced a $536 million settlement of those claims in 2004. Other antitrust representations include Be, Inc.?s, suit against Microsoft, which settled in September 2003 for a confidential amount that resulted in a payment of $23.25 million to Be net of attorneys? fees and costs.

Mr. Crosby also assisted in obtaining an $87.5 million settlement on the eve of trial of accounting malpractice claims against auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers in Georgia state court in 2005. Mr. Crosby represented a syndicate of over ninety financial institutions who funded a multi-billion dollar credit facility for Safety-Kleen, Inc., a waste-services company that had defaulted after declaring bankruptcy and withdrawing its audited financial statements.

Before joining Susman Godfrey, Mr. Crosby served as law clerk to the Honorable Robert Boochever on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 1999 to 2000, and to the Honorable John C. Coughenour, then Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington, in 1998 and 1999.

Mr. Crosby received his law degree with high honors in 1998 from the University of Texas School of Law. He was a member of the Order of the Coif and Society of Chancellors, recipient of the Norman S. Davis, Clarence Leon Carter, and Locke Purnell Rain Harrell Endowed Presidential Scholarships in Law, and an Editor of the Texas Law Review. He received awards for highest achievement in several subjects, including Patent Litigation and Antitrust.

Mr. Crosby received his undergraduate degree in 1995 from Reed College, where he majored in Philosophy and received a faculty commendation for excellence. He has also studied German at the Goethe Institut in Bremen, Germany, where he received the Zertifikat Deutsch als Fremdsprache (Certificate of German as a Foreign Language) in 1989.

Mr. Crosby is the author of Worlds in Stone: Gadamer, Heidegger, and Constitutional Originalism, 75 Tex. L. Rev. 849 (1998); and Portland's Asset Forfeiture Program: The Effectiveness of Vehicle Seizure in Reducing Rearrest Among "Problem" Drunk Drivers, in Policing in Eastern and Central Europe: Comparing Firsthand Knowledge With Experience of the West (Milan Pagon ed. 1996).

Mr. Crosby is admitted to practice in Washington State, in the United States Courts of Appeals for the Fourth and Ninth Circuits, and in the United States District Courts for the Western District of Washington, the District of Maryland, and the Eastern and Southern Districts of Texas.

Mr. Crosby contributes posts on legal, economic, and other topics to The Incidental Economist blog.