CG Technology Development, LLC

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) continued to see the filing of petitions for inter partes review (IPR) against publicly traded NPEs in March 2017, including Acacia Research Corporation; Finjan Holdings, Inc.; Pendrell Corporation; TiVo Corporation (formerly known as Rovi Corporation); and Wi-LAN Inc. (WiLAN). A variety of prolific, privately held NPEs were also targeted for IPR throughout March, including Blackbird Tech LLC, General Patent Corporation, IP Edge LLC, Realtime Data LLC, and Papst Licensing GmbH & Company Kg, along with several inventors and inventor-controlled NPEs and an assortment of other plaintiffs.

A Nevada judge has dismissed the remaining causes of action in an infringement suit brought by Cantor Fitzgerald subsidiary CG Technology Development, LLC (CG Tech), which had previously asserted 12 online gaming patents against FanDuel (2:16-cv-00801). In an October 18 order, District Judge Robert Jones partially denied a Rule 12 motion to dismiss filed by FanDuel in July against the seven patents still at issue, declining to find one of the patents-in-suit (RE39,818) invalid under Alice. However, Judge Jones dismissed claims related to the ‘818 patent and six others (6,884,166; 8,641,511; 8,771,058; 8,814,664; 9,306,952; 9,355,518) with leave to amend due to pleading deficiencies. This decision follows the parties’ mid-September stipulation to drop the other five patents from the case (6,899,628; 7,029,394; 7,534,169; 8,342,924; 9,111,417) as a result of an August 29 ruling in a CG Tech suit against Big Fish Games (2:16-cv-00857), in which Judge Jones found that each patent is directed to unpatentable subject matter under Alice.