After months of courtroom crossfire and a Chapter 11 fallout, Akoustis Technologies Inc. has finally laid down arms in its bitter intellectual property war with semiconductor giant Qorvo Inc., abandoning its appeal of a devastating $39 million jury verdict that accused the RF filter company of willfully stealing trade secrets and infringing key patents.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Monday signed off on a joint motion from both sides to dismiss the case, closing the curtain on a saga that sent shockwaves through the radio frequency tech sector. In a terse ruling, the court stated that each party would shoulder its own legal costs, signaling a mutual ceasefire in a battle that had already bled Akoustis dry.
The Verdict That Rocked Akoustis to the Core
The roots of Akoustis’ unraveling trace back to May 2024, when a Delaware federal jury found that the company had misappropriated more than three dozen Qorvo trade secrets and infringed two of its patents. The verdict came with a thunderous penalty: $31.3 million in compensatory damages and an additional $7 million in punitive damages.
Jurors declared the misappropriation willful, a damning label that cast Akoustis not as a misstepper but as a calculated corporate pirate. The 49 claims of theft spanned proprietary processes, designs, and confidential strategies—intellectual crown jewels that Qorvo argued were essential to its edge in the ultra-competitive semiconductor space.
