Time to Bring Comcast’s Suit vs. MaxLinear to an End, Says MaxLinear’s Reply Brief

After the filing of four complaints, plus a fully briefed and then withdrawn preliminary injunction motion and hundreds of pages of briefing over the past 12 months, Comcast’s suit against MaxLinear “should end,” said MaxLinear’s reply memorandum of law Wednesday (docket 1:23-cv-04436) in U.S. District Court for Southern New York in further support of its motion to dismiss Comcast’s third amended complaint. The dispute began about a year ago when Comcast alleged that chipmaker MaxLinear breached its “contractual obligations” to support millions of its broadband gateways (see 2305300045). MaxLinear contends that Comcast’s third amended complaint, like those before it, is a grievance “in search of a claim” (see 2404040031). The cable company has been given ample opportunity and process to identify and pursue a valid cause of action, said MaxLinear’s memorandum Wednesday. While the plaintiff maintains that MaxLinear terminated its contracts improperly in May 2023, it still hasn’t pled a “valid claim,” the memorandum said: “In fact, now four complaints in, Comcast does not even assert a claim for breach of those contracts.” The “attenuated” claims Comcast has asserted don’t clear “longstanding pleading standards and should be dismissed,” it said. Comcast’s April 24 opposition briefing (see 2404250002) “confirms that its pled claims fail,” it said. The plaintiff hasn’t suffered any harm from MaxLinear, “nor does Comcast identify any threatened or likely future harm,” it said. There’s thus “no jurisdiction” for the court to hear its declaratory judgment claims, and the court shouldn’t “indulge Comcast with an advisory opinion,” it said. Even worse, Comcast’s requested declarations “seek specific performance, for which it has not pled the necessary elements,” said the memorandum. Comcast’s ancillary claims for indemnification and breach of the implied covenant “are likewise insufficiently pled and equally meritless,” it said. After multiple hearings and pleadings, it’s now “abundantly clear” that Comcast “is decidedly outraged by MaxLinear’s lawful assignment of patents to Entropic, which has sued Comcast in another lawsuit,” it said. But as the court recognized when it ordered Comcast to replead its prior second amended complaint, intensity of feeling is not a replacement for a good statement of a cause of action, it said. The third amended complaint doesn’t include “a good statement of a cause of action, let alone one that survives dismissal,” said the memorandum: “Comcast’s year-long litigation campaign against MaxLinear should now conclude swiftly, and its claims dismissed.”