IP Edge LLC
About IP Edge LLC
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87 Total Litigation Campaigns
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IP Edge Launches First Wireless Communications Campaign from Patents Acquired from Linex Technologies
August 31, 2019In April 2019, Zyrcuits IP LLC, an NPE apparently associated with monetization firm IP Edge LLC, picked up the bulk of the patent portfolio once held (and litigated) by Linex Technologies, Inc. Last week, Zyrcuits asserted the first of those 30 US patents, filing complaints against Signify (1:19-cv-01609), Spectrum Brands (1:19-cv-01610), Wink Labs (1:19-cv-01607), and Wirepath Home Systems (Control4) (1:19-cv-01608), in the District of Delaware and against Samsung (2:19-cv-00298) in the Eastern District of Texas. The sole asserted patent generally relates to spread-spectrum wireless data transmission, with infringement allegations targeting the provision of smart home products supporting the ZigBee wireless communications standard.
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IP Edge Initiates an Eighth Campaign from Patents Picked Up Last October from Siemens
August 31, 2019The portfolio of patents received by monetization firm IP Edge LLC from Siemens in October 2018 has now given rise to eight campaigns, with the most recent waged by plaintiff Sonohm Licensing LLC. The NPE has accused Best Buy (Great Call) (1:19-cv-01619, 1:19-cv-01620), Fry’s Electronics (2:19-cv-00297), Juniper Systems (1:19-cv-00101), and ROKit (2:19-cv-07569) of infringing up to three wireless communications patents through the provision and/or sale of various devices that use Bluetooth 4.0 technology, including various smartphones, speakers, tablets, and wireless earphones. The retailers, Best Buy and Fry’s, are accused of infringement through the sale of such products made by Amazon, ASUSTek, BLU Products, Caterpillar, CellAllure, DigiLand, Ematic, Lenovo, RugGear, and Visual Land, among others, with Best Buy’s GreatCall tagged over the provision of the Jitterbug Smart2 and Jitterbug Flip “senior cell phones”; Juniper Systems, over its “rugged” mobile devices (i.e., the CT7G, Allegro 3, and Archer 3); and ROKit, over its iO Pro 3D, 3D, Light, and One smartphones.
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IP Edge Begins a Seventh Campaign from Patents Acquired from Huawei
August 31, 2019Enchanted IP LLC, a Texas entity associated with monetization firm IP Edge LLC, has begun a campaign over a single patent generally concerning an external battery that can use a “detection terminal” to charge or discharge. The defendants are Hon Hai (Belkin) (2:19-cv-07572) and ZAGG (Mophie) (8:19-cv-01648), each sued in the Central District of California; Sunvalleytek International d/b/a RAVpower (3:19-cv-05513) and Tenergy (3:19-cv-05512) in the Northern District of California; Anker Innovations (1:19-cv-01632) in the District of Delaware; and Procter & Gamble (Duracell) (1:19-cv-11858), sued in the District of Massachusetts, with the plaintiff naming in its complaints the companies’ portable chargers: the Belkin Pocket Power, the Mophie Juice Pack Reserve, the RAVPower Power Bank, the Tenergy TB6AC, Anker’s PowerCore+, and the Duracell Powerbank, respectively. IP Edge received the sole patent-in-suit as part of a larger acquisition, involving roughly a dozen US assets, from Huawei.
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IP Edge Kicks Off Yet Another Litigation Campaign, This One over Group Emergency Alert Patents
August 31, 2019Monetization firm IP Edge LLC, through associated entity Aristors Licensing LLC, has filed suit against BlackBerry (1:19-cv-01583), Everbridge (1:19-cv-01584), and United Technologies (1:19-cv-01585) in the District of Delaware; against Singlewire Software (3:19-cv-00695) in the Western District of Wisconsin; and against Status Solutions (1:19-cv-00722) in the Southern District of Ohio, all as part of a new litigation campaign over a family of patents generally related to sending sensor data to emergency responders and “emergency alert groups” on a mobile device. Targeted are the defendants’ crisis communication systems; for example, BlackBerry’s AtHoc system.
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IP Edge Ends August with a Filing Spree That Includes New Complaints Across Multiple Ongoing Campaigns
August 31, 2019In late August 2019, while IP Edge LLC dropped four brand new litigation campaigns through litigating entities Aristors Licensing LLC (over a patent received from an inventor-controlled entity), Enchanted IP LLC (over a patent received from Huawei), Sonohm Licensing LLC (over patents received from Siemens), and Zyrcuits IP LLC (over a patent received from Linex Technologies, Inc.), the Texas monetization firm also added cases across an even broader set of its many campaigns. Altair Logix LLC, Digi Portal LLC, EncodiTech LLC, Saros Licensing LLC, and Wave Linx LLC—each a Texas plaintiff associated with IP Edge—have all filed cases over the past week.
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Four Defendants Steel Themselves in the Face of New Campaign from IP Edge’s Valyrian IP
August 3, 2019Valyrian IP LLC has become the seventh plaintiff in apparent association with IP Edge LLC to file suit over patents that the monetization firm received from Siemens in October 2018. The patent that Valyrian has now asserted against Avaya (1:19-cv-01436), Grandstream Networks (1:19-cv-01437), ICON Voice Networks (3:19-cv-01829), and Plantronics (Polycom) (1:19-cv-01438) generally relates to a cordless phone system where calls are forwarded from a base station to handsets based on one of three priority levels assigned to a phone number as stored with caller ID info in a directory: “lowest priority” (or “DO NOT DISTURB”), “intermediate priority”, and “highest priority”. The NPE targets the defendants over the provision of cordless phone systems with “Do Not Disturb” features that allow the user to pick certain phone numbers from a directory as “priority” numbers, where calls still go through when Do Not Disturb is enabled.
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IP Edge Plaintiff Files Second Round in Database Query Campaign
July 31, 2019Devine Licensing LLC, an NPE associated with monetization firm IP Edge LLC, has filed a second round of suits in its campaign over a single patent generally related to optimizing a database query. The new defendants are Altibase (2:19-cv-16163), DataStax (1:19-cv-01440), and MariaDB (1:19-cv-01441), accused of infringement over the provision of their database management systems: Altibase HDB 6.5.1, DataStax Enterprise 5.0, and MariaDB MaxScale 1.4, respectively. IP Edge acquired the asserted patent, which originated with IBM, from Huawei in a February 2019 transaction involving a total of 11 US patent assets, with subject matters ranging from network-connected “domestic food-processing appliances” to sharing “presence information”, from battery charging to digital cameras.
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IP Edge Affiliate Launches Enterprise Communications Campaign over Former Huawei Patent
June 28, 2019As reported last week, IP Edge LLC recently assigned a single patent generally related to sharing “presence information” to affiliate Kaleasy Tech LLC, an entity the Texas monetization firm had formed in early June. Kaleasy has now filed suit, hitting Avaya (1:19-cv-01170), Fuze (1:19-cv-01169), Mitel Networks (1:19-cv-01167), and Vonage (1:19-cv-01168), all in the District of Delaware, and NEC (3:19-cv-01555) in the Eastern District of Texas, over the provision of certain enterprise communication systems (e.g., video conferencing and chat services), including Equinox Meetings, Fuze Conferencing and Collaboration System, MiCollab, Vonage MobileConnect, and NEC UNIVERGE 3C, respectively.
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IP Edge Looks Ready to Assert More Former Huawei Patents
June 20, 2019As reported by RPX earlier this year, prolific NPE IP Edge LLC picked up a portfolio of patent assets from Huawei in February 2019. In the past three months, the Texas-based monetization firm has farmed out some of the former Huawei patents to newly created entities in that state, several of which—Bexley Solutions LLC; Devine Licensing LLC; Saros Licensing LLC; and Theta Chip LLC—have since begun litigating them. Public records indicate that more litigation stemming from that February transaction is likely coming soon.
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Guada Technologies Hits Additional Retailers over Search Features on Ecommerce Websites
June 4, 2019Guada Technologies LLC (Guada Tech), an apparent affiliate of IP Edge LLC, has added cases against retailers Pier 1 Imports (1:19-cv-01016), Sally Beauty Supply (1:19-cv-01017), and Staples (1:19-cv-01018) to its sole litigation campaign, over a single information processing patent. The new suits join active 2019 cases filed against fellow retailers Big 5, BSN Sports, Floor and Décor Outlets of America, Hibbett Sporting Goods, HSN, and UncommonGoods; suits brought earlier this year against BPS Direct and Williams-Sonoma have already joined the many cases in this campaign that have been dismissed.
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IP Edge Files First Litigation over Recently Acquired Digital Camera Patent
May 31, 2019IP Edge LLC has now asserted in litigation a fourth of the roughly dozen patents that the Texas monetization firm received from Huawei in February of this year. Apparent IP Edge affiliate Theta Chip LLC has sued Canon (2:19-cv-00199), Fujifilm (1:19-cv-04966), Nikon (1:19-cv-04969), Olympus (1:19-cv-00995), and Sigma (1:19-cv-04971) in various districts across the country. The NPE asserts a single patent, generally related to digital cameras, calling out the Canon EOS M3, Fujifilm X-E1, Nikon Coolpix S800c, Olympus TG-3, and Sigma SD1 Merrill Digital SLR cameras as accused products. Theta Chip joins Bexley Solutions LLC (targeting routers), Devine Licensing LLC (targeting query optimization), and Saros Licensing LLC (targeting smart home appliances) in litigating patents transacted in that February 2019 set of assignments from Huawei.
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IP Edge’s Wave Linx Reloads in Conferencing Campaign
May 31, 2019The file-and-settle pattern by which Texas monetization firm IP Edge LLC wages its litigation has quickly taken hold in the campaign launched in late February by apparent affiliate Wave Linx LLC. New suits filed last week against CarrierX and Free Conferencing (1:19-cv-00986), Evocate (1:19-cv-00987), and Mitel Networks (1:19-cv-00988) follow dismissals already ending prior suits against Avaya, DialPad, HighFive Technologies, LogMeIn, and Polycom, with stays halting the remaining earlier suits, filed against Blue Jeans Network, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (Arkadin), RingCentral, and both Zoom Video Communications and Zoom Voice Communications, all in the District of Delaware. The sole patent asserted in this campaign, received by IP Edge as part of a larger acquisition from Siemens, broadly concerns transmitting notifications from the telephone system to a browser using “networking protocols”.
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A Second Alice-Octane Storm Weathered, IP Edge Keeps on Filing
May 5, 2019As RPX’s recently published Patent Litigation and Marketplace Report notes, IP Edge LLC landed at the top of the list of most frequent filers for 2018, a spot familiar to the Texas monetization firm from previous years (see here and here). Its affiliates added nearly 200 defendants to campaigns over the course of last year, and, as RPX noted last week, the firm recently acquired a portfolio of US patents from Huawei, which the week in between has already seen translated into four new litigation campaigns (see, e.g., here, here, here, and here). The former Huawei patents join portfolios acquired directly from Panasonic (in October 2017) and Siemens (in October 2018), which the monetization firm has been asserting in multiple litigation campaigns since. This burst of activity over patents acquired in bundles from operating companies comes as IP Edge has weathered a second Alice-Octane storm that ended one of its affiliate’s litigation campaigns, this time hitting in Delaware rather than in Texas.
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Network Router Campaign Shifts Gears to Target Certain Smart TVs
May 1, 2019In March 2019, Cassiopeia IP LLC joined a growing list of other IP Edge affiliates to assert patents received from Siemens in litigation, accusing China Huaxin Post & Telecommunication Economy Development Center (Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise), HP Enterprise (Aruba Networks), and Western Digital of infringement through provision of networking products that maintain a list of discovered network services, including DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) and UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) services, that have advertised their availability within a network. The NPE has now added three more cases, this time accusing Best Buy (1:19-cv-00799), TTE Technology (1:19-cv-00800), and Westinghouse Electric (1:19-cv-00801) over the provision of smart TVs that support media casting using the DIAL protocol. Cassiopeia IP is an affiliate of Texas monetization firm IP Edge LLC.
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IP Edge Affiliate Kicks Off Campaign Targeting Network Routers
May 1, 2019Bexley Solutions LLC, an IP Edge LLC affiliate, has filed suit over a patent that the Texas monetization firm recently acquired from Huawei. The patent is broadly directed to routing network packets over multiple trunks by “selecting one of plural trunks forming a composite trunk to the destination”. The NPE’s new complaints accuse Black Box (1:19-cv-00787), D-Link (8:19-cv-00788), Fortinet (1:19-cv-00788), HP Enterprise (HPE) (1:19-cv-00789), Lenovo (1:19-cv-00790), and United Technologies (UTC Fire & Security Americas) (1:19-cv-00792) of infringement through the provision of Ethernet switches, D-Link in the Central District of California and the rest in the District of Delaware.
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Query Optimization Campaign Launched—by IP Edge Affiliate—in Delaware
May 1, 2019IP Edge LLC affiliate Devine Licensing LLC has begun litigating one of the roughly dozen patents that the Texas monetization firm recently acquired from Huawei, suing SAP (1:19-cv-00784), Teradata (1:19-cv-00785), and Tmax Soft (1:19-cv-00786). In a set of complaints filed in the District of Delaware, the plaintiff accuses the defendants of infringement through the provision of database products that offer query optimization features utilizing materialized views (which are database objects that contain the precomputed results of a query, such as a local copy of remote data), calling out SAP Adaptive Enterprise Server 16.0, Teradata Database 15.10, and Tibero 6, respectively. The asserted patent, which originated with IBM, generally relates to optimizing a database query.
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In Yet Another New Campaign, IP Edge Takes Aim at Security Systems and Cameras
May 1, 2019Pebble Tide LLC has initiated a litigation campaign over a single patent, generally related to capturing digital content and wirelessly sending it over a network such as the Internet. The NPE has accused Arlo Technologies (1:19-cv-00769), Logitech (3:19-cv-02287), and SLOMIN’S (3:19-cv-11554)—sued in Delaware, California, and New Jersey, respectively—of infringement through the provision of security systems and cameras, calling out Arlo’s Smart Home Security System, including the Arlo, Arlo Pro, Arlo Pro 2, and Arlo Ultra networked security cameras; Logitech’s Circle 2 Security Camera; and the SLOMIN’S Shield Security System and video camera. Pebble Tide is an affiliate of Texas monetization firm IP Edge LLC.
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Another Portfolio of Former OpCo Patents in Hand, IP Edge Looks Poised for Yet More Litigation
April 28, 2019According to recently released assignment records, prolific patent plaintiff IP Edge LLC has picked up roughly a dozen US patent assets from Huawei. Some of the patents transferred originally issued to Huawei (or its subsidiary Futurewei), but the original development work for others was conducted elsewhere, including at Avici Systems (d/b/a Soapstone Networks), Fujitsu, IBM, NCR, or Panasonic (Matsushita). It has not taken the Texas monetization firm long to debut the first of those assets in litigation; last Friday, Saros Licensing LLC, a recipient of three related patents generally related to a network-connected “domestic food-processing appliance”, sued ACP (1:19-cv-00764), Haier (1:19-cv-00766), LG Electronics (1:19-cv-00765), and Traeger Pellet Grills (1:19-cv-00767) in the District of Delaware and Sub-Zero (1:19-cv-00949) in the Northern District of Ohio. Other recent activity strongly suggests that more litigation from the transacted assets is to follow.
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IP Edge Tags More Companies over Conferencing and Online Meeting Systems
April 6, 2019One of the six campaigns launched by Texas monetization firm IP Edge LLC over a former Siemens patent has now already seen a second round of suits filed. Last week Wave Linx LLC hit Avaya (1:19-cv-00607), Dialpad (1:19-cv-00608), and Polycom (1:19-cv-00609) over the provision of online meeting systems—Avaya’s Equinox Meetings Online, UberConference by Dialpad, and Polycom’s RealPresence Meetings, respectively—that provide notifications when a user enters or exits a meeting. The sole patent asserted in this campaign broadly concerns transmitting notifications from the telephone system to a browser using “networking protocols”.
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Phalanx of IP Edge Affiliates Swells, Asserting More Former Siemens Patents
March 31, 2019Blueprint IP Solutions LLC and Cassiopeia IP LLC have become the latest affiliates of IP Edge LLC to litigate patents that the Texas monetization firm acquired from Siemens last October. Blueprint IP has sued Fortinet (1:19-cv-00577), Hitachi (Hitachi Vantara) (1:19-cv-00579), HP Enterprise (HPE) (1:19-cv-00578), NetApp (1:19-cv-00580), Oracle (1:19-cv-00581), and Talend (1:19-cv-00582) over a former Siemens patent generally related to a redundant and “geographically separate” pair of “switching systems” where a “monitoring unit” keeps one switching system active and the other in a “hot-standby” mode, and switches the latter into active mode when the former loses network communications. Meanwhile, Cassiopeia IP has filed suit against HPE (Aruba Networks) (1:19-cv-00593), China Huaxin Post & Telecommunication Economy Development Center (Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise) (1:19-cv-00599), and Western Digital (1:19-cv-00594), also in Delaware, but over a former Siemens patent broadly directed to a system that enables the use of network services by detecting all usable services and entering them on a “blackboard”.
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Image Capture and Transfer Campaign Keeps Rolling Past Repeated Alice Motions
March 4, 2019As Sapphire Crossing LLC adds to its litigation campaign a case against SAP (Concur) (1:19-cv-01442) in the Northern District of Illinois and two other cases, one each against Kellogg (1:19-cv-00415) and WageWorks (1:19-cv-00416) in the District of Delaware, existing defendants in the latter forum have established a pattern. HealthEquity, Intuit, Quotient, WEX Health, Visa, and Xero have all answered Sapphire Crossing’s complaint but have also filed concurrent motions to dismiss, which challenge the few claims of the patent-in-suit left standing after an earlier inter partes review (IPR) under Alice. The motions are nearly identical, identifying the putative abstract idea to which the image transfer patent is patent-ineligibly directed as “data recognition and transfer”. If recent past is precedent, those suits will likely reach a resolution before the court addresses any of the motions filed.
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A Second IP Edge Affiliate Asserts a Former Siemens Patent, in Campaign over Motion Sensors
March 1, 2019Another IP Edge LLC affiliate has launched a litigation campaign over a patent from a portfolio that the Texas monetization firm acquired from Siemens last October. Pinek IP LLC has accused Fibar (1:19-cv-01463), Honeywell (1:19-cv-00425), Lutron Electronics (1:19-cv-01487), Monitronics (2:19-cv-00074), Robert Bosch (Bosch Security Systems) (1:19-cv-00424), and Sercomm (3:19-cv-01133) of infringing one of those patents, generally pertaining to firing a circuit in response to an “activation signal”, through the provision of motion sensors used to trigger intrusion alarms. The NPE filed this campaign across districts in California, Delaware, Illinois, and Texas.
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A Third IP Edge Affiliate Asserts a Former Siemens Patent, This Campaign over Conference Call Notifications
March 1, 2019Wave Linx LLC, an affiliate of Texas monetization firm IP Edge LLC, has asserted another patent from among those acquired from Siemens in October 2018. The NPE targets Blue Jeans Network (1:19-cv-00419), HighFive Technologies (1:19-cv-00420), LogMeIn (1:19-cv-00421), Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (Arkadin) (1:19-cv-00418), RingCentral (1:19-cv-00422), and Zoom Video Communications and Zoom Voice Communications (1:19-cv-00423), all in the District of Delaware, over their provision of online meeting or conferencing systems that provide a notification when a participant has entered or exited via a phone connection (e.g., by playing a tone, allowing users to hear the name of the participant, or showing a visual notification).
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IP Edge Launches a Fourth Campaign, Here Targeting Surveillance System DVRs, over a Former Siemens Patent
March 1, 2019Distech Controls (1:19-cv-00417) is the first defendant to be sued by Raven Licensing LLC, an affiliate of Texas monetization firm IP Edge LLC. Together with Pinek IP LLC, Rainey Circuit LLC, and Wave Linx LLC, Raven Licensing is the fourth IP Edge affiliate to litigate a patent from among the 30 US patents received, together with a number of foreign counterparts in Asia and Europe, from Siemens in October 2018. The patent Raven Licensing asserts broadly concerns a system for monitoring a “spatial region”, with infringement allegations naming Distech’s VM-DM/DVIP/NV8 Series Real Time Recorders.
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Recent Networking Campaign of IP Edge Sees Second Round of Suits
January 3, 2019IP Edge LLC affiliate Mentone Solutions LLC has added a second round of cases to its campaign targeting devices with Dual-Carrier HSPA+ capability. The new defendants are Airbus Space and Defense (1:18-cv-03321), ASUSTek (3:18-cv-07749), CradlePoint (1:18-cv-02041), NetComm Wireless (1:18-cv-02040), and Peplink (3:18-cv-07754), the complaints identifying as accused products the Airbus Tactilon Dabat, ASUSTek’s ZenFone 4 Pro Zs551K; CradlePoint’s MC400 modem; and certain routers of NetComm and Peplink, respectively. With the transfer of the prior case against Acer to the Western District of Texas, this campaign now proceeds in multiple districts, including the Eastern District of Texas, the Northern District of California, the District of Delaware, and the District of Colorado.
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Second Wave in IP Edge Fax Data Transmission Campaign Sweeps over Five More Defendants
December 29, 2018Commtech IP LLC has filed a second wave of lawsuits in its campaign targeting the provision of various enterprise-grade networking and/or communications products that offer fax data transmission features based on certain communications standards (including ITU-T Recommendations V.34, V.8, V.8bis, V.22, and/or V.22bis). The new defendants are Avaya (1:18-cv-02065), Motorola Solutions (1:18-cv-02066), Silicon Laboratories (1:18-cv-02067), and US Robotics (1:18-cv-02068), sued in the District of Delaware, and Enea (3:18-cv-03410), in the Northern District of Texas. Commtech IP is an apparent affiliate of Texas monetization firm IP Edge LLC.
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IP Edge LTE Base Station Campaign Bursts Back to Life
December 21, 2018Zavala Licensing LLC, an apparent affiliate of monetization firm IP Edge LLC, has revived its litigation campaign, which saw a short burst of initial activity in late 2017. The NPE has asserted the same patent, broadly pertaining to radio communications, against BaiCells Technologies (2:18-cv-00543), Ericsson (2:18-cv-00544), and Samsung (2:18-cv-00545) in the Eastern District of Texas, and ZTE (3:18-cv-03390) in the Northern District of that state. At issue are the defendants’ LTE base stations that allegedly comply with the LTE Release 8 standard. In October 2017, Zavala sued Airspan Networks, General Dynamics Mission Systems (GDMS), Nextivity, Thales, and Wilson Electronics (d/b/a Weboost), each of which cases was dismissed by mid-December 2017, all but the suit against GDMS without prejudice.
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Amid Its Flurry of New Campaigns, IP Edge Acquires a Portfolio from Siemens
December 11, 2018Recently released USPTO records reveal an October 2018 transfer by Siemens to IP Edge LLC, involving 30 US patents and a number of foreign counterparts in Asia and Europe. Included in that transaction was a patent now being litigated by Rainey Circuit LLC, an apparent IP Edge affiliate, in a video messaging campaign launched in late November—the ninth new IP Edge campaign launched in the past six months.
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Campaign Targeting Mobile Receipt Upload Captures Another Defendant
December 6, 2018Roughly one month after filing cases against Groupon, Ibotta, and Quotient, Sapphire Crossing LLC, an affiliate of IP Edge LLC, has also added Intuit (1:18-cv-01856) to its file-and-dismiss campaign over a single image transfer patent. Infringement allegations in the NPE’s earlier complaints focused on mobile banking apps providing mobile check deposit features for financial institutions. In this latest round of suits, Sapphire Crossing focuses on mobile app features that allow the capture and upload of store receipt images, here within the QuickBooks Accounting mobile app.
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Apparent IP Edge Affiliate Launches Video Messaging Campaign
December 3, 2018Rainey Circuit LLC, an apparent affiliate of monetization firm IP Edge LLC, has kicked off a new multi-district campaign, suing 8x8 (1:18-cv-01903), Vonage (1:18-cv-01904), and WhatsApp (1:18-cv-01905) in the District of Delaware; BlackBerry (3:18-cv-03156) in the Northern District of Texas; and Twitter (1:18-cv-07905) in the Northern District of Illinois. Each complaint asserts a single patent generally related to transmitting “multimedia” messages, with infringement allegations focused on video messaging features (i.e., messages containing both video and audio components) within the 8x8 Virtual Office app, BBM and the Messenger app on BlackBerry devices, the Vonage Mobile app, the WhatsApp messaging platform and mobile app, and Twitter’s social networking platform.
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PoC Campaign Hits Six More Defendants, Across Multiple States
December 2, 2018Techno Licensing LLC added another round of cases to its sole litigation campaign, over a single patent generally related to push-to-talk (PTT) over cellular (PoC) service. The NPE, a litigating affiliate of monetization firm IP Edge LLC, has targeted devices that support PoC communications, including in its latest round of suits, against Bluebird (2:18-cv-00370), Kirisun (0:18-cv-62890), Pepperl + Fuchs (4:18-cv-04429), Sonim Technologies (1:18-cv-01870), Teamspeak Systems (3:18-cv-07287), and Unitech (4:18-cv-04430). Techno Licensing’s is the fourth IP Edge campaign to arise from a portfolio of nearly 30 patents originating with Panasonic and acquired from Allied Security Trust (AST) in early 2017.
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IP Edge Affiliate Targets Acer, HTC, Mattel Devices Allegedly Containing MediaTek or Qualcomm SoCs
November 29, 2018Altair Logix LLC recently filed suit against Acer (3:18-cv-07154), HTC (2:18-cv-01685), and Mattel (1:18-cv-01861), targeting devices with either a Qualcomm or MediaTek system-on-chip (SoC) that allegedly include multiple “media processing units” identified as the ARM quad-core Cortex-A53. The new defendants join ASUStek and TI as active in the campaign after dismissals have been entered in earlier suits filed against Microsoft, Samsung, and ZTE. Altair Logix is an affiliate of IP Edge LLC, a Texas monetization firm that has landed at the top of recent years’ lists of most frequent plaintiffs.
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IP Edge Campaign Shifts from Mobile Check Deposit to Store Receipt Capture
November 1, 2018Sapphire Crossing LLC, an affiliate of IP Edge LLC, has filed another wave of lawsuits in its file-and-dismiss campaign over a single image transfer patent. The latest defendants are Ibotta (1:18-cv-01716) and Quotient (1:18-cv-01717) in the District of Delaware and Groupon (1:18-cv-07277) in the Northern District of Illinois. Most earlier defendants were financial institutions, tagged over the provision of mobile banking apps offering mobile check deposit features; here, Sapphire Crossing focuses on mobile app features that allow the capture and upload of store receipt images.
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IP Edge Kicks Off Campaign Focused on DC-HSPA+ Capable Devices
October 29, 2018IP Edge LLC has launched a fourth litigation campaign based on one or more of the 30 plus former Panasonic patents that the Texas monetization firm acquired from Allied Security Trust (AST) in January 2017. Mentone Solutions LLC, formed in mid-September, has filed suit against Acer (2:18-cv-00443), Inseego (1:18-cv-02767), MVG (1:18-cv-01713), NETGEAR (1:18-cv-01714), TCL (2:18-cv-00444), and T-Mobile (2:18-cv-00445) over a patent generally related to packet transmission in TDMA (time division multiple access) wireless networks. Targeted are devices with Dual-Carrier HSPA+ capability, the complaints calling out Acer’s Swift 7 laptop, Inseego’s SA2100 modem, MVG’s NeptuLink, NETGEAR’s LTE modems (e.g., LB2120), TCL’s LINKZONE hotspot, and T-Mobile’s Rocket 3.0 4G modem.
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IP Edge Smart Home Campaign Expands in Both Delaware and Texas
October 26, 2018The smart home campaign of IP Edge LLC, filed through affiliate Karamelion LLC, saw four more defendants added this past week: Ingersoll-Rand (2:18-cv-00442), Leviton Manufacturing (1:18-cv-01670), Napco Security (1:18-cv-01671), and United Technologies (1:18-cv-01672). The new cases join existing suits filed in August across multiple districts against ADT, AT&T (AT&T Digital Life), Frontpoint Security Solutions, Protect America, and Reliant Energy. Asserted across the campaign is a family of two patents generally related to controlling a “distribute appliance system”, with the defendants accused of infringement through the provision of a variety of connected appliances. The complaints particularly identify devices using the Z-Wave wireless communications protocol, at least one calling out control by the Samsung SmartThings Hub, although Samsung is not named as a party.
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Q3 Sees Flurry of IP Edge Filings
October 7, 2018IP Edge LLC, which RPX data shows has cumulatively added more defendants to patent lawsuits than any other plaintiff since 2000, was relatively quiet during the first two quarters of 2018. Q3, however, saw an uptick in IP Edge activity, with various affiliates launching five new campaigns targeting a wide range of technologies.
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IP Edge Affiliate Launches Customized Interface Campaign
September 27, 2018Guild Forest LLC, an apparent affiliate of Texas monetization firm IP Edge LLC, has initiated a new litigation campaign, suing IFWE (1:18-cv-01483), Pinterest (1:18-cv-01480), Snap (1:18-cv-01481), Spotify (1:18-cv-01482), and Time (MySpace) (1:18-cv-01479) in the District of Delaware. The sole patent-in-suit generally relates to compiling and consulting user profiles to customize “an interface”, with infringement allegations focused on the use of user data for targeted advertising and analytics on the defendants’ social media platforms.
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September Sees Three Defendants Exit, Four Others Enter, in PoC Campaign
September 26, 2018Another apparent affiliate of monetization firm IP Edge LLC has expanded an existing litigation campaign. Last month saw dismissals in earlier Techno Licensing LLC cases, against Airbus, Telus, and Verizon, as well as a new suit filed against Telapex (Cellular South); so far this month, the NPE has sued Dillon Kane Group (1:18-cv-06505), NEC (3:18-cv-02559), Simoco EMEA (2:18-cv-00405), and Zebra Technologies (1:18-cv-06506) in various districts. Throughout this campaign, Techno Licensing has asserted a single patent generally related to push-to-talk (PTT) over cellular (PoC) service, with infringement allegations targeting devices that support PoC communications.
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Digi Portal Expands Targeted Advertising Campaign
September 25, 2018Digi Portal LLC has expanded its litigation campaign over a former Yahoo patent, generally related to delivering customized webpages to Internet users. New suits have been filed against Microsoft (LinkedIn) (1:18-cv-01484) and Quotient Technology (1:18-cv-01485) and come as the deadline to answer or otherwise respond to the complaint in the first case, filed against Twitter earlier this year, has been moved to late October. Infringement allegations focus on the defendants’ use of targeted advertising on their respective platforms.
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August PTAB Activity Included IPRs Against Fortress NPEs, Among Other Prolific Filers
September 16, 2018The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) saw activity in August 2018 involving a variety of frequent litigants. This included petitions for inter partes review (IPR) filed against two NPEs controlled by Fortress Investment Group LLC, INVT SPE LLC and Uniloc 2017 LLC, the latter of which has in recent months cofiled a barrage of lawsuits with subsidiaries of Australian NPE Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited (Uniloc). The PTAB also instituted trial in August for IPRs against Uniloc 2017 and some of its campaign coplaintiffs, and in an IPR against an NPE controlled by patent attorney Brian Yates, whose US litigation has waned as he pursues a new patent licensing initiative through his company iPEL, Inc. Finally, the PTAB issued final decisions in August for IPRs against Uniloc, Empire IP LLC, and Quarterhill Inc.
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Apparent IP Edge Affiliate Launches Fax Data Transmission Campaign in Delaware
September 14, 2018Commtech IP LLC, an apparent affiliate of monetization firm IP Edge LLC, has launched a new litigation campaign, suing Black Box (1:18-cv-01428), Dialogic (1:18-cv-01429), Digi International (1:18-cv-01430), Synaptics (1:18-cv-01431), and Westermo Data (1:18-cv-01432) over the provision of various enterprise-grade networking and/or communications products that offer fax data transmission features based on certain communications standards (including ITU-T Recommendations V.34, V.8, V.8bis, V.22, and/or V.22bis). The new complaints assert a single patent that IP Edge acquired, through affiliate Intertechnology Global LLC, from Panasonic as part of a transaction comprising roughly 30 US assets. Last year, Intertechnology Global assigned a single patent to each of Techno Licensing LLC and Zavala Licensing LLC, which launched separate litigation campaigns in late 2017.
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Guyzar Dodges an Alice Attack, Leaves a $75K Damages Ask Hanging, and Files Yet More Cases
August 17, 2018A couple of months after its last wave of suits ended, Guyzar LLC, an apparent affiliate of monetization firm IP Edge LLC, has filed another one. The NPE has sued AirBNB (1:18-cv-01256), America Movil (TracFone Wireless) (1:18-cv-01258), eBay (Stubhub) (1:18-cv-01257), and Nike (1:18-cv-05599) over the use of the OAuth protocol on their websites. The sole patent-in-suit generally relates to using a separate certification server to authenticate a first server without revealing confidential information about the user. While seeking a default judgment against a defendant in the last round, also targeted for its website operation, Guyzar—ordered to justify a $75K damages ask untethered to either a lost profits or reasonable royalty theory—voluntarily dismissed the case instead.
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Altair Logix Expands New Campaign with Suits against Microsoft and Samsung
August 2, 2018Cases against Microsoft (2:18-cv-00325) and Samsung (2:18-cv-00326) have been added to the litigation campaign begun with a mid-July complaint against TI by Altair Logix LLC, an affiliate of monetization firm IP Edge LLC. A single patent, described as relating to “the field of runtime reconfigurable dynamic-adaptive digital circuits”, is asserted in each suit, with infringement allegations against Microsoft focused on convertible tablets (e.g., the Surface 2 equipped with the NVIDIA Tegra 4 processor) and those against Samsung focused on Chromebooks equipped with the Exynos 5 Dual processor. Both complaints identify the ARM Quad core Cortex A-15 as the “media processing units” working in conjunction with the products’ processor.
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IP Edge Initiates Smart Home Campaign in Both Delaware and Texas
August 1, 2018Karamelion LLC, an affiliate of Texas monetization firm IP Edge LLC, as kicked off a new smart home campaign. The plaintiff accuses ADT (2:18-cv-00330), AT&T (AT&T Digital Life) (2:18-cv-00331), and Reliant Energy (1:18-cv-01150) of infringing a single patent generally related to controlling a “distribute appliance system”, ADT in the Eastern District of Texas, through the provision of smart plugs, thermostats, and light bulbs; AT&T Digital Life in the same district, through the provision of hubs and various smart devices such as lighting control modules, thermostats, light switches, garage door controllers, and door locks; and Reliant Energy in the District of Delaware, through the provision of plugs, wireless door locks, garage door controllers, light bulbs, and thermostats.
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New IP Edge Campaign Targets TI SoCs
July 19, 2018Altair Logix LLC, an affiliate of monetization firm IP Edge LLC, has launched a new litigation campaign, suing Texas Instruments (1:18-cv-01065) in Delaware. The new complaint asserts a single patent generally related to “the field of runtime reconfigurable dynamic-adaptive digital circuits which can implement a myriad of digital processing functions related to systems control, digital signal processing, communications, image processing, speech and voice recognition or synthesis, three-dimensional graphics rendering, and video processing”. TI is accused of infringement through the provision of certain ARM-based systems-on-chip with media-processing features, the complaint specifically identifying the Texas Instruments 66AK2Hxx Multicore DSP+ARM® KeyStone II System-on-Chip. This litigation is only the fourth new 2018 campaign filed by IP Edge, by far the most prolific NPE plaintiff over the past several years.
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Second IP Edge Campaign Launched in Delaware This Past Week
July 19, 2018In a new Delaware case, Wiremed Tech LLC, another affiliate of IP Edge LLC, has asserted a single patent broadly related to real-time control of a computer-generated visualization based on sensory input. The NPE accuses Adobe (1:18-cv-01066) of infringement through the provision of its Character Animation software, with infringement allegations focused on features that translate user input into animation, such as those that automatically animate a character’s mouth when the user speaks into a microphone and that move the character’s head according to the user’s head movements captured via webcam, as well as various mouse and keyboard animation controls.
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PTAB Sees Activity Involving Top NPEs, both Past and Present, in June 2018
July 7, 2018In June 2018, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) saw petitioners wage validity challenges against a variety of prominent NPEs. Among those hit by petitions for AIA review in June was Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV), which has not filed any new litigation in the US since October 2017, but continues to assert patents overseas; and NPEs affiliated with Fortress Investment Group LLC and Industrial Technology Research Institute. Also in June, the PTAB instituted trial for two IPRs against affiliates of top litigant IP Edge LLC, which remains the most prolific patent plaintiff of the past 18 years by the number of defendants added to US patent suits. In addition, the Board issued final decisions in IPRs against IV, the California Institute of Technology, inventor Daniel L. Flamm, and frequent litigants Realtime Data LLC and Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited.
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Another Former Yahoo Patent Pops Up in Litigation, This Time Brought by an Apparent IP Edge Affiliate
June 4, 2018Digi Portal LLC, an apparent affiliate of Texas monetization firm IP Edge LLC, has filed its first litigation, suing Twitter (1:18-cv-00808) over a single patent generally related to delivering customized webpages to Internet users. The NPE’s infringement allegations focus on the defendant’s generation of a user’s “Twitter home page and Timeline”, with paragraphs 12 through 25 of Digi Portal’s complaint explaining the usefulness and uniqueness of the purported invention and providing citation to the specification of the patent-in-suit for nearly every sentence.
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IP Edge’s PoC Campaign Snags Airbus and Verizon
May 2, 2018Techno Licensing LLC, an apparent affiliate of monetization firm IP Edge LLC, has filed cases against Airbus (1:18-cv-02012) in the District of Colorado and Verizon (1:18-cv-00662) in the District of Delaware. The new suits follow in the wake of a March settlement and dismissal in an earlier case in this campaign, filed in September 2017 against Tait. Each of the five cases in this campaign has asserted a single patent, generally related to push-to-talk over cellular (PoC) service. The new complaints target the defendants’ provision of PoC equipment—Verizon, through the provision of “Verizon handsets that interface with and/or operate in a communication environment provided by Link Communications, and any similar products”; and Airbus, through the provision of devices offering Airbus’ Tactilon Agent mobile app as well as the app itself.
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Cypaleo Keeps Campaign Alive After Recent Entry of Default Judgment
April 10, 2018Cypaleo LLC, an affiliate of prolific patent monetization firm IP Edge LLC, has kept its sole litigation campaign alive with a suit filed against VOXX (1:18-cv-00537) in the District of Delaware. The complaint asserts the same former Xerox patent, generally related to a networked device for monitoring a machine, the device having multiple communication interfaces, at issue throughout this campaign. VOXX is accused of infringement through the provision of “interactive communication devices”, with Cypaleo calling out the Jensen VM9216BT in-dash multimedia receiver.
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IP Edge Text Messaging Campaign Turns from Mobile Banking Apps to Mobile Security Apps
April 6, 2018IP Edge LLC affiliate Anuwave LLC has rebooted its litigation campaign with a new round of filings, shifting application of the sole text messaging patent-in-suit from the provision of mobile banking services to the provision of “text security services”—i.e., security apps that locate a mobile device by sending it a text message from another device. The new complaints hit Avast (1:18-cv-00506), BitDefender (1:18-cv-00507), BullGuard (1:18-cv-00508), Symantec (1:18-cv-00509), Total Defense (1:18-cv-00510) and Webroot (1:18-cv-00511) in the District of Delaware and Sophos (1:18-cv-10655) in the District of Massachusetts, where prior defendants in the campaign, numbering close to 50, have typically been banks.
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IP Edge Image Transfer Campaign Keeps Focus on Mobile Banking, Sapphire Crossing from Ruby Sands Notwithstanding
April 6, 2018While Anuwave LLC pivots away from mobile banking, the campaign focus of its fellow IP Edge LLC affiliate has stayed squarely on it. New Texas entity Sapphire Crossing LLC has taken over the litigation campaign of Ruby Sands LLC, suing Citizens Financial Group (1:18-cv-00513) and Great Western Bancorp (1:18-cv-00514) in the District of Delaware and Investors Bancorp (2:18-cv-05527), Lakeland Bancorp (2:18-cv-05528), and Valley National Bancorp (2:18-cv-05529) in the District of New Jersey. The sole patent-in-suit generally relates to image transfer, with IP Edge, through both affiliates, accusing the defendants throughout the campaign of infringement through the provision of mobile banking apps offering mobile check deposit features.
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IP Edge Adds New Case to Medical Inventory Management Campaign, as Earlier Suit Enters Claim Construction
February 19, 2018Olive Shade LLC has added a case against CenTrak (2:18-cv-00501) to the litigation campaign that it began in June of last year. CenTrak is the seventh defendant against which Olive Shade has asserted the sole patent-in-suit, which broadly relates to using RFID (radio frequency identification) to track medical devices; the defendants are accused of infringement through provision of their medical inventory management solutions (most recently, CenTrak’s Asset Tracking & Management solution). The cases against five of those earlier defendants have already been dismissed, while the suit filed last June against Becton Dickinson (CareFusion) has entered claim construction.
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Spycurity Keeps VoIP Gateway Campaign Alive with Another Round of Cases
February 18, 2018Spycurity LLC, an apparent affiliate of Texas monetization firm IP Edge LLC, has filed a third round of cases in the litigation campaign that it began last July. The new defendants are Dialogic (1:18-cv-00267), Edgewater Networks (1:18-cv-00268), GenBand (1:18-cv-00269), and KVH Industries (1:18-cv-00270). The campaign has seen a single patent, generally related to initiating a computer program based on receipt of a telephone call, asserted, with infringement allegations focused on the manufacture and sale of gateway devices that facilitate connection between more traditional telephone formats and VoIP systems.
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Chat Engine Campaign Sees Second Wave Filed, This One in Southern District of New York
January 31, 2018A week after Epic IP LLC began asserting a single online chatting patent in a new litigation campaign, three more defendants have been hit: Fareportal (1:18-cv-00880), JAND (1:18-cv-00881), and Sharp (1:18-cv-00882). On January 24, the NPE sued AutoNation, Backblaze, and Blue Jeans Network, now accusing all six defendants of infringement through provision of live chat mechanisms on their websites. Epic IP is an apparent affiliate of IP Edge LLC, and this campaign appears to be the Texas monetization firm’s first of 2018.
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IP Edge Appears to Have Launched Its First Litigation Campaign of 2018, Targeting Live Chat Engines
January 26, 2018Epic IP LLC, an apparent affiliate of IP Edge LLC, has initiated its first litigation campaign of 2018, asserting a single patent in three new suits, one each filed against AutoNation (1:18-cv-00139), Backblaze (1:18-cv-00141), and Blue Jeans Network (1:18-cv-00140). The patent-in-suit generally relates to online chatting, with the defendants accused of infringement through provision of live chat mechanisms on their retail websites.
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PTAB Saw Continued Debate over Tribal Sovereign Immunity in December 2017
January 7, 2018The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) remained at the center of a heated public debate over the issue of tribal sovereign immunity in December 2017. Motions to dismiss filed by the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe in IPRs against several Allergan patents—acquired by the tribe and licensed back to their original owner to shield them through sovereign immunity—remain pending as the PTAB considers a wave of amicus briefs filed on both sides of the issue. The Board has since denied the tribe’s motion for an oral hearing on discovery related to alleged bias held by the USPTO and its leadership, and that bias’s effect on the selection of judges for the tribe’s case. Meanwhile, among the petitions for inter partes review (IPR) filed in December was one brought by Apple against MEC Resources, LLC, an entity owned by another Native American tribe, which took over an existing lawsuit asserting the challenged patent against Apple in the fall. Also in December, the Board issued institution decisions in petitions against Iridescent Networks, Inc.; Lone Star Silicon Innovations LLC; and publicly traded Quarterhill Inc.; while an IPR against Packet Intelligence LLC ended in an adverse judgment after petitioner Sandvine prevailed in a November trial.
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IP Edge’s Packet Tread Keeps VoIP Campaign Going into 2018
January 5, 2018After a several-month hiatus, Packet Tread LLC has filed additional cases in its voice over IP (VoIP) campaign, suing Atos (Unify) (9:17-cv-81375) in the Southern District of Florida and both Echostar (Hughes Network Systems) (8:17-cv-03069) and IPItomy Communications (8:17-cv-03067) in the Middle District. The NPE accuses the defendants of infringing a single patent broadly related to echo cancellation in VoIP networks through provision of their communications systems. Packet Tread is an affiliate of Texas monetization firm IP Edge LLC, the most active NPE plaintiff at the end of both 2016 and 2017.
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New IP Edge Home Security Campaign Launched Across Five Districts
November 7, 2017Tenaha Licensing LLC, an apparent affiliate of monetization firm IP Edge LLC, has added seven more defendants to the home security campaign that it began with lawsuits filed last week against BrickHouse Electronics, Napco Security, and Slomin’s. The new complaints assert the same patent, generally related to a device that provides notifications of both emergency and non-emergency events, against the integrated home security systems of ADT, Control4, FrontPoint Security Solutions, NRG Energy (Reliant Energy), Protect America, Simplisafe, and Telular. With these additional suits, Tenaha Licensing (apparently named after a town in East Texas) has initiated its campaign in five separate districts: the District of Delaware, the Eastern District of New York, the Southern District of New York, the Southern District of Florida, and the Eastern District of Texas.
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IP Edge Affiliate Kicks Off New IoT Campaign Focused on Home Security Systems
November 2, 2017Tenaha Licensing LLC, an apparent affiliate of monetization firm IP Edge LLC, has begun a new IoT campaign, filing separate lawsuits against BrickHouse Electronics (1:17-cv-08496), Napco Security (1:17-cv-06399), and Slomin’s (1:17-cv-06397). The single patent asserted generally relates to a device that provides notifications of both emergency and non-emergency events. Infringement allegations target the defendants’ integrated home security systems, e.g., BrickHouse’s MorZa, Napco’s Starlink Home Security, and Slomin’s Home Security System.
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IP Edge’s Guyzar Revives Website Login Campaign
October 16, 2017Guyzar LLC, an apparent affiliate of monetization firm IP Edge LLC, has revived its website login campaign after the last of its previous cases was dismissed in August. The NPE’s latest complaints, against 360Training.com (2:17-cv-00697), Al’s Formal Wear (2:17-cv-00698), Glasses USA (1:17-cv-07906), Executive Gift Shoppe (1:17-cv-07904), and Nikon (1:17-cv-06016), bring the total number of defendants in its sole campaign, launched in late 2015, to more than 75. The new defendants are accused of infringing a single web authentication patent through the use of the OAuth protocol on their websites.
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Transfers to Uniloc and Network-1 Seen Among the Assignment Records Released During the First Week of October
October 13, 2017RPX noted among the assignment records posted by the USPTO during the first week of October patent transfers to Uniloc Luxembourg S.A.; Blackbird Tech LLC; Network-1 Technologies, Inc.; Intellectual Ventures LLC; Optis Wireless Technology, LLC; and an apparent affiliate of IP Edge LLC.
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Second IP Edge Affiliate Asserts a Former Panasonic Patent in Litigation
October 13, 2017Zavala Licensing LLC has begun a litigation campaign, filing complaints that assert a single patent against Airspan Networks (1:17-cv-01436), General Dynamics Mission Systems (GDMS) (1:17-cv-01437), Nextivity (1:17-cv-01438), Thales (1:17-cv-01439), and Weboost Electronics (1:17-cv-01440). The patent generally relates to devices and methods for radio communication. The NPE, an apparent affiliate of monetization firm IP Edge LLC, has accused the defendants of infringement through the provision of LTE base stations, naming Airspan’s Air4G Macro MAXe, GDMS’s Cell on Wheels LTE Deployable Solution, Nextivity’s Cel-Fi QUATRA, the NEXIUM Wireless LTE network solution, and the Weboost Connect 4GX system, respectively.
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Micoba Shifts Campaign Focus to Internet Music Apps
October 13, 2017Micoba LLC, an affiliate of IP Edge LLC, has filed two new cases in the campaign that it began last December, asserting the same file-foldering patent against iHeartMedia (2:17-cv-00693) and Spotify (1:17-cv-01364). The accused products in the new complaints are the iHeartRadio Free Music & Radio and Spotify Music apps, respectively, with infringement allegations focusing on their automatic foldering of music files (e.g., by genre, artist, etc.). Each of the 11 first round cases were filed in the Eastern District of Texas before the US Supreme Court’s TC Heartland decision on proper venue in patent cases; the iHeartRadio complaint was also filed in the Eastern District, alleging that the defendant is incorporated there (and is therefore deemed to reside in the district), while the Spotify complaint was filed in Delaware, where it was incorporated.
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Somaltus Brings Its Battery Campaign to the Show-Me State
September 21, 2017Somaltus LLC has added a case against Energizer Holdings (4:17-cv-02440) to cases filed earlier this summer against Maxim Integrated Products, Tenergy, and Universal Power Group in its battery service system campaign. Before the US Supreme Court’s TC Heartland decision in May, Somaltus, as is typical of an IP Edge LLC affiliate, had focused its litigation in the Eastern District of Texas, but since that decision, the NPE has been forced to litigate elsewhere; with the new suit, Somaltus now has active cases in Delaware, Missouri, Ohio, and Texas. Energizer is accused of infringement through provision of its Recharge Universal Charger. Battery charging devices have been at issue throughout this campaign, which began in February 2015, although earlier waves in the campaign targeted automakers and the battery operations within smartphones and other portable computing products.
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Third Round in IP Edge Campaign Takes Second Turn, from Environmental Sensors to Medical Devices
September 12, 2017The fourth NPE to receive patents formerly owned and asserted in litigation by Olivistar LLC, an entity managed by patent monetization firm IP Edge LLC, has now asserted the patent received in a third field of use. Olivistar asserted a single patent, generally related to using self-learning rules to monitor whether a measurement deviates from a previous norm and, if so, generating an alert, in a round of suits targeting fitness trackers. In August 2016, IP Edge moved the patent from Olivistar to apparent affiliate Silkeen LLC, which asserted it in another round of litigation, this one alleging infringement through the manufacture and sale of systems having environmental (i.e., temperature and humidity) sensors. Over the summer, Silkeen’s campaign has taken another turn, focusing infringement allegations on medical tracking devices, with the most recent suit hitting Medtronic (0:17-cv-04271) in the District of Minnesota.
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Assignments Published by the USPTO During the Second Half of August Include Transfers to Frequent Litigators
September 7, 2017RPX took notice, among the USPTO assignment records made available during the second half of August, of transfers to several frequent plaintiffs in litigation, including affiliates of Leigh M. Rothschild, IP Edge LLC, and Monument Patent Holdings, LLC.
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Number of Defendants in IP Edge’s QR Code Campaign Tops 30
August 28, 2017The QR code campaign of IP Edge LLC affiliate Kaldren LLC has gone national, picking up seven new defendants so far in August in various venues across the country, even as earlier cases also face venue changes. Kaldren has added two new suits in the Eastern District of Texas, the NPE’s original venue, chosen before the US Supreme Court’s May, TC Heartland decision: Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas (5:17-cv-00155) and Stemco (5:17-cv-00156). It has also filed new cases in the District of Delaware, against Cigna (1:17-cv-01160); in the Northern District of Illinois, against Rust-Oleum (1:17-cv-06149) and Trippe Manufacturing (1:17-cv-06151); and in the Western District of Wisconsin, against La Crosse Technology (3:17-cv-00661), Madison Gas & Electric (3:17-cv-00663), and Wausau Paper (3:17-cv-00664).
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Venadium Steadily Adds Defendants to Website Login Campaign
August 25, 2017August 2017 has seen the number of defendants in the file-and-settle litigation campaign of Venadium LLC, an affiliate of IP Edge LLC, swell close to 50. The six companies hit so far this month are 8X8 (1:17-cv-01176), Ameriprise Financial (1:17-cv-01177), Arista Networks (1:17-cv-01178), Bandwidth.com (1:17-cv-01179), Control4 (1:17-cv-01180), and Digi International (1:17-cv-01181). The single patent at issue in the campaign, acquired from Xerox, is generally related to limiting software to authorized use, with recent infringement allegations focusing on the cryptographic protocols (e.g. RSA, Diffie-Hellman, and HMAC) during the login process for the defendants’ websites.
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IP Edge CRM Campaign Sees Another Round of Complaints
August 20, 2017This past May, after the last of the cases from the first wave of litigation in this campaign had been dismissed, Serenitiva LLC (an affiliate of IP Edge LLC) filed a second wave. The NPE hit Freshdesk, Zendesk, and TalkDesk, accusing each of infringing a single patent, generally related to call tracking and resolution management, through provision of their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems. Serenitiva also sued, in separate complaints, six customers of those companies. Now that all nine of those May cases have been dismissed, the NPE has again filed a new wave, this time against Mitel Networks (6:17-cv-00461), SAP (6:17-cv-00460), and Vocalcom (6:17-cv-00463), targeting the contact center software of each.
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IP Edge’s Anuwave Revives Text Message Banking Campaign After Recent Dismissals
August 8, 2017IP Edge LLC affiliate Anuwave LLC has filed its first new litigation since January, accusing Capitol Federal Savings Bank (1:17-cv-01054), Community Banks of Colorado (1:17-cv-01848), JPMorgan Chase (Chase Bank) (1:17-cv-01056), and TCF Financial (1:17-cv-01082) of infringing a single text messaging patent through the provision of mobile banking services. These latest complaints follow the dismissal of Anuwave’s last nine active lawsuits earlier this year, with eight cases dismissed with prejudice throughout February and March and a single suit against Evergreen Bank Group (1:17-cv-00479) dismissed without prejudice in late June.
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Deshodax Shifts from Smartphone Autofocus to Vibrate Mode in Delaware Cases Against BlackBerry, Samsung, and Sony
July 27, 2017Deshodax LLC has added three more defendants to the Delaware leg of its litigation campaign over a single patent (7,307,398), generally related to changing the operation of a “motor system” based on inputs received in an image processor. Earlier complaints in the campaign target the autofocus features in cameras built into smartphone cameras, but these new complaints take aim at the vibrate mode in BlackBerry’s DTE K50 (1:17-cv-01014), Samsung’s Galaxy S7 (1:17-cv-01015), and Sony’s Xperia M5 (1:17-cv-01016) smartphones. Deshodax began this campaign, as had nearly every litigating affiliate of patent monetization firm IP Edge LLC, in the Eastern District of Texas, but shifted to Delaware after the US Supreme Court’s May 22 TC Heartland decision on patent venue.
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Latest IP Edge Affiliate Draws Blood with New Computer Telephony Campaign
July 5, 2017Spycurity LLC, an apparent affiliate of Texas patent monetization firm IP Edge LLC, has launched a new litigation campaign, filing separate Delaware suits against Audiocodes (1:17-cv-00883), Digium (1:17-cv-00884), Fortinet (1:17-cv-00885), Sangoma (1:17-cv-00886), and Sonus Networks (1:17-cv-00887). Each complaint asserts a single patent (5,809,118), generally related to initiating a computer program based on receipt of a telephone call. The NPE accuses the defendants of infringement through the manufacture and sale of gateway devices that facilitate connection between more traditional telephone formats and VoIP computer systems, more specifically, Audiocodes’s Mediant 3000 E-SBC and Media Gateway, Digium’s G200 Dual T1 E1 PRI Gateway, the Fortivoice 100D8 Gateway, Sangoma’s Netborder SS7 VoIP Gateway, and Sonus Networks’s Quintum AXT4800 VoIP Gateway.
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Delaware Joins Texas as Venue for Deshodax’s Smartphone Camera Campaign
June 28, 2017Another of IP Edge LLC’s litigation campaigns has stretched beyond the Eastern District of Texas. Deshodax LLC has moved for voluntary dismissal of its case against Lenovo (5:17-cv-00081) in that district, at roughly the same time that it has filed a new complaint against the same defendant (1:17-cv-00804) in Delaware, the state of incorporation of the named party, Lenovo (United States), Inc. Both Deshodax complaints assert a single patent (7,307,398) generally related to changing the operation of a “motor system” based on inputs received in an image processor. The accused products are the autofocus features in cameras built into the defendants’ smartphones. IP Edge, long a plaintiff fixture in Texas, has been forced by the US Supreme Court’s TC Heartland decision, to litigate in more varied climates over the past six weeks.
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Payment Campaign Pulls In Third Defendant
June 28, 2017Apparent IP Edge LLC affiliate Vaultet LLC has added a third case to the litigation campaign begun earlier this month against Avis Budget Group and Disney. The same patent (7,814,009), generally related to retail systems permitting anonymous purchases, is asserted against new defendant American Eagle Outfitters (6:17-cv-00378), with infringement allegations once again focused on payment options on the company’s website, both gift cards and PayPal. All three cases have been filed in the Eastern District of Texas; Vaultet points to multiple American Eagle retail stores, as well as the availability of the American Eagle website, throughout the district to establish venue.
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Vaultet LLC, an apparent affiliate of monetization firm IP Edge LLC, has launched a litigation campaign, asserting a single patent (7,814,009) in separate cases filed against LLC subsidiaries of Avis Budget Group (Avis Rent A Car System LLC) (6:17-cv-00366) and Disney (Disney Store USA LLC) (6:17-cv-00362). The ‘009 patent generally relates to retail systems permitting anonymous purchases, with infringement allegations against Disney focusing on the use of PayPal, and for Avis on the use of gift cards and American Express cards, each as methods of payment on the companies’ websites. In an apparent nod to the US Supreme Court’s TC Heartland decision, each new complaint pleads proper venue in the Eastern District of Texas with more particularity than usual for IP Edge affiliates.
The NPE names as defendants in each respective case an LLC subsidiary of the parent entity: Avis Rent A Car System LLC for Avis Budget Group and Disney Store USA LLC for The Walt Disney Company. Parents and subsidiaries were all formed in Delaware with headquarters located outside Texas. However, for the purposes of personal jurisdiction and proper venue, Vaultet pleads that Disney Store USA is registered to conduct business in Texas and has 13 physical locations in the state, including one in the Eastern District, also selling products and collecting Texas sales taxes through purchases made on the Disney store website. Similarly, Vaultet pleads that Avis Rent A Car System is registered to conduct business in Texas and has “numerous physical store locations” in the state, including several in the Eastern District, also permitting customers to make vehicle reservations via the www.avis.com website. The plaintiff then pleads, identically in each case, that venue is proper under both prongs of the patent venue statute (28 U.S.C. § 1400(b)): residence (“Defendant, as a non-corporation, resides in this District”) and “regular and established place of business” with acts of infringement (“Additionally, acts of infringement have occurred in this District, and Defendant has a regular and established place of business in the District, which includes, without limitation, physical retail stores of Defendant in the District.”).
Vaultet’s pleading appears to hang proper venue, at least in part, on a footnote from the TC Heartland decision itself. In the first footnote in the opinion, the Supreme Court noted that the underlying complaint alleged that defendant is a corporation, which TC Heartland admitted in its answer. By the time the case bubbled up to the Supreme Court, the parties had noted in briefs that TC Heartland is actually an unincorporated entity (an LLC), not a corporation, organized under Indiana law. The decision leaves “further consideration of the issue of [TC Heartland’s] legal status to the courts below on remand”, which issue the parties are now facing before the district court. TC Heartland (the party) characterizes the “newly minted ‘LLC’ argument” of the plaintiff in that case as “baseless”, contending that residence for a chartered LLC should be determined by the entity’s articles of organization, which in that case identify an Indiana location as TC Heartland’s registered office. (The Delaware district court in the TC Heartland case is not the only court grappling with this issue. For example, a court in the Eastern District of Michigan has recently received briefing from an LLC defendant, organized in Texas, arguing that the TC Heartland applies to it, locating its state of residence both where it is chartered (Texas) and where it has its principal place of business (Texas).)
The ‘009 patent issued in October 2010 with estimated priority date in May 1999. Its sole named inventor is Marvin A. Frenkel, an apparent Michigan resident and graduate of the University of Miami School of Law, once admitted to the Florida bar (in 1950), but no longer eligible to practice in the state. The ‘009 patent comprises a family of one, but while Vaultet pleads ownership of it, currently available USPTO records do not reflect the assignment of rights from Frenkel to the plaintiff.
IP Edge was formed in Texas in July 2015 by Texas attorneys Gautham (Gau) Bodepudi, Sanjay Pant, and Lillian Woung. It was (by far) last year’s most frequent plaintiff, with a history of launching its campaigns (now over 45) in the Eastern District of Texas using LLCs under the management of longtime local residents, many of whom have no ready connection to patent assertion. Vaultet was formed on January 4, 2017 with Jamie Fong as its managing member. Fong is also affiliated with litigating IP Edge entities Mozly Tech LLC and Carnition LLC. 6/16, Eastern District of Texas.
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EncodiTech Revives Encryption Campaign, Targeting Smartwatches and Bluetooth-Enabled Earphones
June 14, 2017EncodiTech LLC, an affiliate of monetization firm IP Edge LLC, has filed its first cases in roughly one year, asserting the same patent (6,321,095) previously in suit, this time against Fossil (6:17-cv-00354), Harman (6:17-cv-00749), Plantronics (6:17-cv-00750), REI (6:17-cv-00358), and TCL (TTE Technology) (6:17-cv-00751). The ‘095 patent generally concerns secure peer-to-peer communications; EncodiTech has shifted the focus of its campaign from ATMs and payment terminals early on, to more general payment security technologies in 2016, and now smartwatches and Bluetooth-enabled headphones that communicate with other devices.
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RPX Blog: As Expected, TC Heartland Decision Triggers Flurry of Venue Filings
June 8, 2017Since the US Supreme Court issued its decision in TC Heartland v. Kraft Foods Group Brands, RPX has seen an upswing in venue-related filings by both plaintiffs and defendants—with indications that some NPEs may be throwing in the towel on Texas, while others are seemingly digging in. Defendants have also begun to adapt their defensive strategies, asserting more comprehensive interpretations of the patent venue statute and proactively maintaining their right to bring venue challenges down the road.
TC Heartland returned a key portion of the patent venue statue, one that allows infringement suits to be brought where a defendant corporation “resides”, to its prior interpretation: such a defendant “resides” only in its state of incorporation. Although venue is still proper under the same statute where a defendant has “committed acts of infringement” and has “a regular and established place of business”, the ruling could significantly limit available venues—potentially impacting both new filings and existing lawsuits.
RPX has been tracking activity in each of those categories since TC Heartland issued. To receive RPX’s new daily transfer alert email summarizing all transfer motions and orders, subscribe here.
Evolving NPE Responses
Conceding to Transfer
RPX has seen a variety of cases in which NPEs, including prolific Texas plaintiffs, have simply conceded the issue of venue since TC Heartland issued. On May 30, Texas-based Monument Patent Holdings, LLC subsidiary Visual Effect Innovations, LLC stipulated to the transfer of its case against NVIDIA (a Delaware corporation headquartered in Santa Clara) from the Eastern District of Texas to the Northern District of California. The parties’ joint stipulation explicitly cited TC Heartland. Texas plaintiff Hypermedia Navigation LLC, an affiliate of monetization firm IP Valuation Partners LLC, made a similar concession in its case against Yahoo (a Delaware corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale), with both parties filing a joint motion to transfer that lawsuit to the same California district. Both Monument and IP Valuation Partners have both taken advantage of the Eastern District of Texas through the formation of multiple NPEs in the state, each designed to wage a single campaign in the Eastern District. RPX will continue to monitor whether those patterns continue as the effects of TC Heartland become clearer.
Picking New Venues
Other plaintiffs have fought back by dismissing existing cases and re-filing in districts where they consider venue to be proper under the Court’s decision. For example, prolific litigant IP Edge LLC (the top filer in 2017 thus far) has begun to shift its assertion efforts outside Texas. Just three days after TC Heartland issued, the NPE’s affiliate Venadium LLC filed five new cases in the Northern District of Illinois: three against Paylocity, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance, and W.W. Grainger—each alleged to reside in that district—as well as two cases against Delaware entities Allstate Insurance and Hyatt Hotels that are alleged to have a principal office in Illinois.
Additionally, Iron Oak Technologies LLC voluntarily dismissed two of its Northern District of Texas cases on June 1, conceding that it is “unaware” of defendants Acer (incorporated in California) or Lenovo (incorporated in Delaware) “having a regular and established place of business” in that district. (See here for the stipulation of dismissal as to Acer, and here for the one pertaining to Lenovo.) That same day, the NPE then filed new actions against both defendants in the Western District of Texas, attaching to its complaints evidence that each has a remote office in the district. Similarly, Express Mobile, Inc.—faced with an existing motion to dismiss due to improper venue brought by defendant Alpine Consulting—notified the district court on the day that TC Heartland was published that it would not oppose that motion. Also that day, the NPE then filed a new case against Alpine in the Northern District of Illinois.
INVT SPE LLC, an NPE controlled by Fortress Investment Group LLC (which took over a campaign started by Inventergy, Inc.) followed that same strategy. On May 25, it both dismissed two suits filed against Apple and HTC in February (one each in the Eastern District of Texas) and filed two new suits against the two defendants in the District of New Jersey. While the previous complaints merely contained short, boilerplate language to establish venue, the new filings make specific allegations supporting its contention that venue is proper in New Jersey, including that the companies have retail locations in New Jersey, have employees in that state that interact with wireless carriers there, and actively list job openings in that district. (See here for the complaint against Apple, and here for the one against HTC.)
Doubling Down on Texas
While some NPEs have attempted to get ahead of TC Heartland, some have doubled down on their venues of choice—particularly the notoriously plaintiff-friendly Eastern District of Texas. A notable example occurred toward the end of last week, when Australian NPE Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited filed a new set of complaints, some amended and others original, in the Eastern District against Google. While its previous pleadings had dedicated scarcely a paragraph or two to venue, Uniloc’s newest filings provide expansive venue-related allegations spanning over thirty pages. (See here for one of the new complaints against Google.) The NPE now prefaces its venue pleadings with a lengthy accounting of the defendant’s supposed connections to the Eastern District, listing a wide variety of Google products made available and supposedly used by customers there along with other alleged connections to the forum, including Google business locations, data collection efforts, and even its provision of services measuring traffic conditions. Uniloc has not felt the need for such extensive venue-related pleading in all of its new cases in the Eastern District—a new round of cases against Apple, also brought last week, contain the NPE’s more standard, minimal venue language.
Roping in Foreign Defendants
RPX has also begun to see early examples of cases addressing the issue of venue for foreign defendants, which the Supreme Court explicitly declined to discuss in TC Heartland. On May 31, CyWee Group Ltd., a British Virgin Islands entity affiliated with Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), sued LG Electronics (LGE) in the Southern District of California along with two of its US subsidiaries, LG Electronics Mobilecomm USA (LGEMU) and LG Electronics USA (LGEUSA). The NPE’s complaint asserts that venue is proper in that district for LGEMU based on its incorporation in California. CyWee then pleads that LGEMU is an agent of LGEUSA, noting several ways that those entities have allegedly been equated with LGE in public communications. Venue is alleged to be proper against the South Korean corporate parent both because “it is not a resident of the United States and may, therefore, be sued in any judicial district” and because it has a “regular and established place of business” in the district through its purported agents (and has allegedly committed acts of infringement in the district).
Evolving Defensive Strategies
Moving Beyond Residence
While venue motions filed in the immediate wake of TC Heartland focused on corporate residence, RPX has more recently seen an increasing number of defendants asserting improper venue due to the lack of a “regular and established place of business” in the original district. One such example occurred this past week in the sprawling campaign waged by Realtime Data LLC. Less than two weeks after a jury in the Eastern District of Texas awarded the NPE $4.32M in a trial against Riverbed Technologies, that same defendant filed a declaratory judgment action against Realtime Data in the Northern District of California. In the new complaint, Riverbed pleads that because it is not incorporated in Texas and does not have a “regular and established place of business” in the Eastern District of Texas, venue is not proper there. Meanwhile, Realtime Data faces reinvigorated venue challenges in other cases in its Texas campaign, including a motion to dismiss for improper venue or transfer to the District of Colorado brought by Spectra Logic (under a TC Heartland theory, prior to the decision’s issuance), a motion to dismiss for improper venue filed by Barracuda Networks, and a motion to dismiss for improper venue filed by Carbonite. In addition, on May 30, Huawei challenged the choice of venue in a case brought by Smart Wearable Technologies Inc., a subsidiary of Wi-LAN Inc. (which changed its name to Quarterhill Inc. on June 1 as part of a business re-organization and shift away from patent assertion). That motion alleges that venue is not proper in the Western District of Virginia, asserting that as a Texas corporation, defendant Huawei Technologies does not reside in the Western District of Virginia. Huawei also argues that it lacks a “regular and established place of business” in that district.
Additionally, some defendants have tacked venue challenges onto motions to dismiss for pleading inadequacies, arguing that the plaintiff had not sufficiently pled acts of infringement anywhere, much less in the suit’s venue. On May 25, Apple filed a Rule 12 motion to dismiss in a case brought against it by Prowire LLC in the District of Delaware. The company asserts that the NPE has not plausibly alleged infringement of the asserted claims, making that venue improper as a result because venue is only proper in a district where the defendant has “committed acts of infringement and has a regular and established place of business”. A similar argument was asserted by Lowes in a June 1 motion to dismiss filed against Monument Patent Holdings, LLC subsidiary Clean Energy Management Solutions, LLC.
At least one defendant has withdrawn a prior motion to change venues for convenience in light of TC Heartland. For example, on June 5, District Judge Robert W. Schroeder, III granted Dell’s motion to withdraw such a motion in a case filed against it by Cypress Lake Software, Inc., in favor of a future motion to dismiss for improper venue, which need not address the relative convenience of the two districts or public interest factors.
Prevention of Waiver
One potential consequence of TC Heartland is that defendants relying on the previous definition of corporate residence may have waived their ability to challenge venue in existing suits. RPX has seen parties proactively preserve their ability to challenge waiver in pleadings and motions, both since TC Heartland and in the months leading up to the decision, with defendants sometimes explicitly stating that they have reserved those rights in anticipation of TC Heartland. Two days after TC Heartland was decided, STMicro filed a motion to dismiss an Eastern District of Texas case that Semcon IP Inc. (a subsidiary of Quest Patent Research Corporation) brought against it roughly one year ago. Heading off any waiver argument, STMicro notes that it pled improper venue as an affirmative defense in its answer to Semcon IP’s complaint, that the TC Heartland theory was not available before May 22, and that, once the decision came down, it filed its motion within two days. A similar argument was raised by NVIDIA in the transfer motion that it filed in the Texas Visual Effect Innovations case, with a footnote expressly stating it had not conceded proper venue by seeking a transfer for convenience and reserving the right to object after TC Heartland was decided.
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Past Texas Fixture IP Edge Launches New Litigation Campaign in Delaware
June 7, 2017Olive Shade LLC, an apparent affiliate of Texas monetization firm IP Edge LLC, has filed suit against Becton Dickinson (CareFusion) (1:17-cv-00690) and Meps Real-Time (1:17-cv-00689) in Delaware. The complaints assert a single patent (6,861,954) generally related to using RFID (radio frequency identification) to track medical devices; the defendants are accused of infringement through provision of their medical inventory management solutions (IMPRESS Track System and Intelliguard RFID solution, respectively). This litigation campaign is the first to be launched by an IP Edge affiliate outside of the Eastern District of Texas and follows two campaigns by IP Edge affiliates, one brought a week before the US Supreme Court issued its TC Heartland decision on patent venue (by Kaldren LLC in New York) and the other brought three days after that decision (by Venadium LLC in Illinois), in which a round of suits has been added to an existing litigation campaign, begun in Texas, outside of that state.
The plaintiff alleges that CareFusion and Meps Real-time are both Delaware corporations with principal places of business in the San Diego area. Olive Shade alleges proper venue in Delaware based on residence in the state, as well as on purported acts of infringement, together with “a regular and established place of business”, in the district. Given Delaware residence, however, the complaints’ venue allegations elaborate little further on any such places of business.
IP Edge was formed in Texas in July 2015 by Gautham (Gau) Bodepudi, Sanjay Pant, and Lillian Woung, and has initiated over 45 litigation campaigns both before (directly through its founders) and after its formation, previously all in the Eastern District of Texas. IP Edge has developed a pattern of naming as the manager or managing member of each of its litigating NPEs a longstanding resident of Texas, presumably to shore up any opposition it might have to file against motions to dismiss or transfer out of the Eastern District. Olive Shade was formed in Texas on February 1, 2017 with Tiffany Halfon as managing member. Halfon is also the managing member of apparent IP Edge affiliate Guada Technologies LLC, which launched a litigation campaign over an information processing patent in the Eastern District of Texas. A Tiffany Halfon identifies herself as the director of the Smart Financial Foundation at Smart Financial Credit Union in the Houston, Texas area.
The ‘954 patent issued in March 2005, the first in a family of two with estimated priority date in June 2000. Its sole named inventor, Bruce H. Levin, appears to have created a Delaware entity, BHL Patent Holdings LLC, in March 2013 to hold the patent, as well as several other patents generally related to medical devices, until it was apparently assigned to Olive Shade. The NPE pleads that it “owns all rights of recovery under the ‘954 patent, including the exclusive right to recover for past infringement”, although USPTO records do not yet reflect any such assignment of rights. (Earlier in the complaint, Olive Shade ascribes to the ‘954 patent the erroneous title, “Method and Apparatus for Peer-to-Peer Communication”; rather, it is titled “Tracking medical products with integrated circuits”.)
RPX reported last week on how the US Supreme Court’s patent venue decision has effected IP Edge’s varied litigation campaigns; see “IP Edge Faces Consequences of TC Heartland on Multiple Fronts” (May 2017). More information on TC Heartland can be found at “Supreme Court Returns to Narrower Patent Venue Statute” (May 2017), with additional analysis about the decision’s potential effects and limitations at “Full Significance of TC Heartland Lies in Nuances of Court’s Decision” (May 2017). 6/6, District of Delaware.
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RPX took notice, among the USPTO assignment records made available during the latter half of May, of the transfer of patents from operating companies HP Enterprise, Panasonic, and Qisda to various NPEs. Two of those NPEs (Uniloc Luxembourg S.A. and Deshodax LLC) have already launched campaigns asserting some of the transacted patents. RPX also saw during this time the recordation of assignments to Brian Yates; Fortress Investment Group LLC; Intellectual Ventures LLC; Blackbird Tech LLC; and IP Bridge, Inc., among others.
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IP Edge Faces Consequences of TC Heartland on Multiple Fronts
May 27, 2017Four days after the US Supreme Court issued its TC Heartland decision, returning to its previous, narrower interpretation of where proper venue lies in patent cases, an affiliate of Texas-based monetization firm IP Edge LLC has taken the rare step of filing litigation outside the Eastern District of Texas. Venadium LLC has asserted the sole patent at issue in its campaign (6,330,549) in Northern District of Illinois complaints against three companies allegedly formed in that state—Paylocity (1:17-cv-04002), State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance (1:17-cv-04004), and W.W. Grainger (1:17-cv-03999)—as well as against two Delaware companies—Allstate Insurance (1:17-cv-03998) and Hyatt Hotels (1:17-cv-04001). Meanwhile, Somaltus LLC, another IP Edge affiliate, agreed to postpone a scheduling conference in an ongoing Eastern District of Texas case to allow that court to rule on a pending motion to dismiss filed by the Ohio defendant, The Noco Company, for lack of personal jurisdiction and improper venue. Late this past week, Magistrate Judge Roy S. Payne granted the motion, transferring that case out of Texas to the Northern District of Ohio. Finally, last week two Southern District of New York judges asked IP Edge affiliate Kaldren LLC to submit letters explaining why venue is proper in cases that that the NPE brought earlier this month in that district.
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IP Edge Affiliate Adds SAP and RingCentral to CRM Campaign, Following Recent Dismissals
May 26, 2017Mozly Tech LLC has added four new defendants to its sole litigation campaign, accusing HubSpot (2:17-cv-00446), LexisNexis (2:17-cv-00447), RingCentral (2:17-cv-00448), and SAP (2:17-cv-00449) of infringing a single patent (7,367,044) generally related to managing account permissions over a network of secure servers. As in most of its previous complaints, the plaintiff—an affiliate of IP Edge LLC—alleges infringement through the provision of customer relationship management (CRM) software.
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IP Edge Affiliate Adds Second Round to QR Code Campaign
May 17, 2017Kaldren LLC, apparently among the many litigating affiliates of monetization firm IP Edge LLC, has filed a second round of suits in its litigation campaign, hitting American Express (1:17-cv-03625), The Hain Celestial Group (1:17-cv-03638), HSBC (1:17-cv-03640), JP Morgan Chase (1:17-cv-03641), and PNY Technologies (1:17-cv-03644). The new complaints again assert a family of four patents (6,098,882; 6,176,427; 6,820,807; 8,281,999), generally related to encoding digital data in a machine-readable format, with the defendants’ accused products and services targeted for their use of QR codes. Extensions of the deadline to answer have been granted in the cases from the first round, filed in March of this year against Citigroup, General Mills, J.D. Power and Associates, NeilMed Pharmaceuticals, Pioneer, Procter & Gamble, and SunTrust Banks.
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IP Edge Affiliate’s Third Round of Suits Follows Recent Dismissals in Its CRM Systems Campaign
May 12, 2017Following swift dismissals of all of its 2016 cases, Serenitiva LLC (an affiliate of IP Edge LLC) has filed a third wave of litigation in its Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems campaign. The NPE has filed four separate suits against 3M Company, Bridgestone, Edmunds, and Lonely Planet over their use of the CRM systems of either Freshdesk or Zendesk, which have also been sued independently. The defendants are accused of infringing a single patent generally related to call tracking and resolution management (6,865,268).
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April Sees Nearly 70 Percent Drop in PTAB Petitions Filed Against NPEs
May 5, 2017The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) saw a decline in petitions for AIA review filed against NPES in April 2017. While the total number of April petitions, 120, was somewhat less than the three-year monthly average of 150, NPEs were hit by 20 petitions in April, a 68.8 percent decline from 64 the previous month. The dip in April PTAB filings comes in the midst of an overall increase in PTAB petitions over the previous year, with the total number of petitions filed so far in fiscal year 2017 nearing 1,200 as of the date of this report (compared to just over 930 petitions during the same period last year). Prolific private litigants remain a regular target for PTAB petitions, with petitions filed in April against IP Edge LLC and Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited, while Acacia Research Corporation was the only publicly traded NPE named in petitions brought during that month.
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Guyzar Website Login Campaign Snags Another Six Defendants
May 5, 2017Apparent IP Edge LLC affiliate Guyzar LLC has filed another half dozen cases, bringing the total number of defendants in the litigation campaign that it launched in late 2015 to over 70. The new suits accuse Genesco (2:17-cv-00361), Olympus (2:17-cv-00362), Sony (2:17-cv-00363), Zinio (2:17-cv-00364), Zoho (2:17-cv-00365), and Zoosk (2:17-cv-00366) of infringing the sole patent-at-issue in the campaign (5,845,070) through the use of the OAuth or OAuth 2 protocols on their websites. The ‘070 patent generally relates to using a separate certification server to authenticate a first server without revealing confidential information about the user.
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Emerson Sub Files Against Banertek Outside the Eastern District of Texas
May 3, 2017In late March, Banertek LLC, an affiliate of monetization firm IP Edge LLC, added yet another round of defendants to the long-running assertion in the Eastern District of Texas of a single patent (6,839,731). The ‘731 patent generally relates to network-based remote device control and communication. The new defendants are ABB (2:17-cv-00241), Eaton (2:17-cv-00242), Emerson Electric (2:17-cv-00243), Endress + Hauser (2:17-cv-00244), Pepperl + Fuchs (2:17-cv-00245), Siemens (2:17-cv-00246), and SMAR (2:17-cv-00247). Each complaint in this round accuses the defendant of infringement through provision of distributed control systems that include devices that utilize the HART (Highway Addressable Remote Transfer) or the WirelessHART open standard communication protocols. Roughly a month later, a subsidiary of Emerson, Emerson Process Management, has now filed a case (1:17-cv-00395) against Banertek, alleging that the NPE sued the wrong defendant and seeking a declaratory judgment from the Western District of Texas that it does not infringe the ‘731 patent.
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The Medical Device Field Not Immune to IP Edge Litigation
May 1, 2017Mirage IP LLC, an affiliate of Texas monetization firm IP Edge LLC, has launched a litigation campaign, asserting two medical device patents (6,375,629; 6,958,059). The ‘629 patent is asserted against AngioDynamics (2:17-cv-00377), Cook Medical Technologies (2:17-cv-00379), MS Holding (Biotronik) (2:17-cv-00378), St. Jude Medical (2:17-cv-00383), and Stryker (2:17-cv-00384) for the manufacture and sale of medical guidewires; the ‘059 patent, against Oscor (2:17-cv-00381) and Spectralytics (Spectranetics) (2:17-cv-00382) for the use of certain catheters; and the ‘629 and ‘059 patents, against Microvention (2:17-cv-00380) for the manufacture and sale of both guidewires and catheters. This campaign is IP Edge’s fifth of 2017 and the second to assert medical devices patents acquired from IP Navigation Group, LLC (d/b/a IPNav).
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Apparent IP Edge Affiliate Kicks Off Smartphone Camera Campaign
April 15, 2017Deshodax LLC, another apparent affiliate of Texas patent monetization firm IP Edge LLC, has kicked off a litigation campaign, filing individual lawsuits against Acer (5:17-cv-00079), Huawei (5:17-cv-00080), Lenovo (5:17-cv-00081), Nokia (5:17-cv-00082), OnePlus (5:17-cv-00083), TCL Communications (5:17-cv-00084), and ZTE (5:17-cv-00085). The new complaints assert a single patent (7,307,398) generally related to changing the operation of a “motor system” based on inputs received in an image processor. The accused products are the autofocus features in cameras built into the defendants’ smartphones.
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March PTAB Petitions Take Aim at Frequent Plaintiffs, Both Publicly Traded and Private
April 7, 2017The 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.
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RPX Monthly Acquisition Update: March 2017
April 7, 2017During March 2017, RPX completed 14 deals on behalf of its patent risk management network, obtaining rights to the patents involved either to end litigation against its members or to prevent it in the first place. March acquisitions occurred within the following market sectors: Automotive, Consumer Electronics and PCs, Media Content and Distribution, Mobile Communications and Devices, Networking, and Semiconductors.
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March Brings Yet Another New Campaign by an Apparent IP Edge Affiliate
March 25, 2017For the sixth month in a row, a subsidiary of patent monetization firm IP Edge LLC has started a new litigation campaign. Kaldren LLC sued Citigroup (5:17-cv-00066), General Mills (5:17-cv-00067), J.D. Power and Associates (5:17-cv-00068), NeilMed Pharmaceuticals (5:17-cv-00069), Pioneer (5:17-cv-00070), Procter & Gamble (5:17-cv-00071), and SunTrust Banks (5:17-cv-00072), asserting a family of four patents (6,098,882; 6,176,427; 6,820,807; 8,281,999) generally related to encoding digital data in a machine-readable format. The new complaints target the use of QR codes in the defendants’ products and services.
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Multiple Large OpCos Among the Assignors in Patent Transfers Seen During the Second Half of February
March 10, 2017RPX took notice, among the USPTO assignment records made available during the latter part of February, of the transfer of patents from operating companies Dongbu, Eastman Kodak, Honeywell, IBM, and Koninklijke Philips to various NPEs. One of those NPEs (Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited) has already launched a campaign asserting the patents that it received (from IBM). RPX also saw during this time the recordation of the assignment of one two-way radio patent from one litigating NPE to another (the second, an affiliate of IP Edge LLC) and the assignment of two database management patents from a Daniel F. Perez entity that asserted them in litigation back to the Georgia patent monetization firm from which that NPE acquired them.
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IP Edge Affiliate’s CRM Software Campaign Hits IBM and ServiceAide
February 24, 2017IBM (2:17-cv-00157) and ServiceAide (2:17-cv-00156) are the latest defendants to be added to the customer service management (CRM) software campaign of Mozly Tech LLC. The newest complaints assert the same patent (7,367,044), which is generally related to managing account permissions over a network of secure servers. Mozly Tech, an apparent affiliate of Texas patent monetization firm IP Edge LLC, accuses IBM of infringement through the provision of its Notes Traveler software and ServiceAide, through the provision of its Cloud Service Management Platform (acquired from CA Technologies in October 2016). A repeated motion attacking the ‘044 patent as patent-ineligibly directed to the abstract idea of “remotely storing contact information including telephone numbers for dialing” is pending before Magistrate Judge Roy S. Payne.
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Another Round of Suits Keeps Display Orientation Campaign Alive
January 31, 2017Kevique Technology LLC has filed another wave in the long-running litigation over a single patent (7,808,483) generally related to moving graphical objects displayed on the screen of a device in response to movement of that device. The new defendants are Alco Electronics (2:17-cv-00086), JLT Mobile Computers (2:17-cv-00087), Juniper Systems (2:17-cv-00088), Lexibook (2:17-cv-00089), Linsay Digital Technology (2:17-cv-00090), NVIDIA (2:17-cv-00091), PLR IP Holdings (d/b/a Polaroid) (2:17-cv-00092), Razer (2:17-cv-00093), SOFTBANK (Sprint) (2:17-cv-00094), and T-Mobile (2:17-cv-00095). At issue in the campaign are devices with touchscreens and orientation sensors; for these latest defendants, smartphones and tablet computers that they manufacture and/or sell. (The accused product identified in the complaints against Sprint and T-Mobile is a different Kyocera smartphone.) Kevique appears to be an affiliate of patent monetization firm IP Edge LLC, which began this campaign through a separate entity, Long Corner Consumer Electronics LLC (LCCE), over three years ago.
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First Half of January 2017 Sees Patent Assignments to Frequent Filers
January 21, 2017RPX observed several patent transfers to NPEs that were recorded in the first half of January 2017. Assignees included Empire IP LLC, an affiliate of IP Edge LLC, and a subsidiary of AIP Acquisition LLC, with the named inventors on the transferred patents including two former telecommunications entrepreneurs and a medical device engineer.
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Former Medtronic Patent at Issue in New IP Edge Campaign
January 13, 2017Drogo IP LLC, an affiliate of patent monetization firm IP Edge LLC, has filed its first litigation, accusing Medivators (2:17-cv-00021) and Olympus (2:17-cv-00020) of infringing a single medical device patent (5,782,765). Both companies are alleged to infringe through the provision of capsule endoscopes, which are pill-sized diagnostic devices containing cameras that are swallowed by patients, allowing photography of the gastrointestinal tract.
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IP Edge Kicks Off 2017 with Fresh Wave of Filings
January 6, 2017Prolific patent monetization firm IP Edge LLC shows no signs of slowing down in the New Year, with affiliated NPEs filing another round of cases in the first week of January. Ruby Sands LLC has added new lawsuits to its troubled mobile banking campaign, while Packet Tread LLC and Cypaleo LLC have continued to expand their respective communications campaigns. These latest cases follow a surge of filings by other IP Edge affiliates in the final months of 2016.
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MagnaCross Leads a Wave of IP Edge Filings as 2016 Comes to a Close
December 29, 2016IP Edge LLC affiliate MagnaCross LLC has filed a fresh round of lawsuits, capping off a wave of year-end litigation by other NPEs also controlled by the prolific monetization firm. The latest MagnaCross complaints target Avaya (2:16-cv-01461), Comtrend (2:16-cv-01462), EnGenius (2:16-cv-01463), Huawei (2:16-cv-01464), Juniper Networks (2:16-cv-01465), Siemens (2:16-cv-01466), and Sierra Wireless (2:16-cv-01467), accusing the companies of infringing a single patent (6,917,304) generally related to wireless data transmission through the provision of wireless access points or routers.
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Micoba, a New IP Edge Affiliate, Targets File Sharing Services
December 16, 2016Micoba LLC, another new entity apparently affiliated with IP Edge LLC, has kicked off a new litigation campaign, asserting a single patent (8,473,532) against eleven companies: ASUS, Box, Carbonite, Citrix Systems, Dropbox, Egnyte, Halliburton (IDrive), KeepItSafe (d/b/a SugarSync), SpiderOak, Syncplicity, and Workshare Technology. The ‘532 patent generally relates to automatically organizing electronic files into folders, with the NPE targeting the file syncing services of the various defendants.
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Recorded Assignments in November’s Second Half Reflect Past, Present, and (Likely) Future Patent Litigation
December 9, 2016In the latter half of November, RPX saw recorded patent assignments to three NPEs that had already begun litigating the patents changing hands: Serenitiva LLC, an affiliate of IP Edge LLC, recorded receipt of a single patent with a colorful ownership history from Allied Security Trust; Robert A. Westerlund’s Strategic Intellectual Solutions, LLC recorded receipt of a single patent invalidated under Alice just days ago; and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology recorded receipt of the patent that it has just asserted in its first ever US litigation. RPX also took note of two transfers to NPEs of patents not yet related to any litigation: Conversant Intellectual Property Management, Inc. recorded receipt of over 20 patents from Panasonic, while Intellectual Discovery Co., Ltd. recorded receipt of just two patents from Pantech. Finally, RPX saw two litigating NPEs each record receipt of another batch of patents from familiar hands, Mantis Messaging, Inc. from Post SMS Global Co. Inc. (f/k/a Mobile Messenger) and DiamondOp, LLC from United Module Corporation.
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Limited PTAB Reprieve Helps IP Edge Financial Institutions Campaign Limp Along After Earlier Fatal Cut-and-Pastes
December 2, 2016Ruby Sands LLC has filed five new cases in the litigation campaign that it began roughly one year ago. The NPE, an affiliate of patent monetization firm IP Edge LLC, has accused Amarillo National Bank (2:16-cv-01304), Cadence Bank (2:16-cv-01305), Falcon International Bank (2:16-cv-01306), First Financial Bank (2:16-cv-01307), and First National Bank Southwest (2:16-cv-01308) of infringing the sole patent-in-campaign (6,891,633), which generally relates to image transfer. The accused products throughout the campaign have been mobile banking apps. The new complaints attempt to avoid pleading inadequacies that proved fatal to some of Ruby Sands’s earlier cases, in part by focusing direct infringement allegations on the defendants’ testing and employee use of mobile devices implementing the accused software and in part by cutting and pasting with greater care.
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IP Edge Affiliate Serenitiva Asserts Patent with a Past in New CRM Campaign
November 18, 2016Serenitiva LLC, a recently formed affiliate of patent monetization firm IP Edge LLC, has kicked off a litigation campaign, filing suit asserting a single patent (6,865,268) generally related to call tracking and resolution management. Three of the seven new complaints directly target the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems of 8×8 (6:16-cv-01290), Salesforce.com (6:16-cv-01295), and SolarWinds (6:16-cv-01288), while the other four hit companies that use those systems: American Express (6:16-cv-01296) and Koninklijke Philips (Philips Electronics) (6:16-cv-01297) for their use of Salesforce Service Cloud; Disney (6:16-cv-01289) for its use of Solarwinds web help desk, and WMPH (d/b/a iCruise.com) (6:16-cv-01291) for its use of 8×8’s Virtual Contact Center Agent Console. Serenitiva is not the first plaintiff to assert the ‘268 patent in litigation.
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Venadium Adds Five More Defendants to Its Refocused Campaign
November 17, 2016Venadium LLC, an affiliate of IP Edge LLC, has added five more cases to its sole litigation campaign, suing Expedia (Hotels.com) (5:16-cv-00174), Groupon (5:16-cv-00173), Kayak (5:16-cv-00175), New Avon (5:16-cv-00172), and Redfin (5:16-cv-00176). The NPE continues to assert a single, former Xerox patent (6,330,549), generally related to limiting software to authorized use, against the cryptographic protocols (e.g. RSA, Diffie-Hellman, and HMAC) during the login process for the defendants’ websites. This approach marked a shift, begun this past July, away from infringement theory in the first wave of lawsuits, filed in July 2015, which targets Bluetooth-enabled devices.
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IP Edge Affiliate Mozly Tech Adds Six New Defendants as CRM Campaign Nears One-Year Anniversary
November 11, 2016Mozly Tech LLC, an apparent affiliate of IP Edge LLC, has filed six new cases in its sole litigation campaign in the wake of multiple dismissals. The NPE’s latest complaints target BMC Software (2:16-cv-01251), Citrix (2:16-cv-01252), Hitachi (2:16-cv-01253), iContact (2:16-cv-01254), NEC (2:16-cv-01255), and Quickbase (2:16-cv-01256) alleging that each defendant’s customer relationship management (CRM) software infringes a single patent (7,367,044) generally related to managing account permissions over a network of secure servers.
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Orostream Campaign Rises from the Dead
October 30, 2016Orostream LLC has resuscitated its sole litigation campaign with new complaints filed against Carbonite (2:16-cv-01205), Code42 Software (2:16-cv-01206), Dropbox (2:16-cv-01207), iDrive (2:16-cv-01208), KeepItSafe (2:16-cv-01209), and QNAP (2:16-cv-01210). Claims from the patent (5,828,837) asserted earlier in the campaign have been invalidated as anticipated and under Alice, apparently motivating the NPE to turn to the ‘837 patent’s only relative (5,768,508) now. Last year, the Eastern District of Texas characterized the subject matter of the ‘837 patent as “computer-implemented systems and methods for transferring information efficiently”, ruling that the only asserted claim (claim 37) is patent-ineligibly directed to the abstract idea of adjusting “the rate of information transfer based on feedback”. The new complaints, asserting the earlier, ‘508 patent, target the process by which the defendants’ websites provide information targeted to a user after log in.
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Anuwave Bankrolls Seven More Defendants
October 22, 2016Anuwave has added a third wave to its banking campaign, asserting the same text messaging patent (8,295,862) against seven more financial institutions: Associated Banc-Corporation (1:16-cv-cv-09925), BankFinancial (1:16-cv-cv-09923), Community Savings Bank (1:16-cv-cv-09927), First American Bank (1:16-cv-cv-09921), First Personal Financial (1:16-cv-cv-09915), Huntington Bancshares (1:16-cv-cv-09918), and Royal Financial (1:16-cv-cv-09920). Mobile banking applications are the accused products in this campaign; with these new filings, the number of defendants is now over three dozen.
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Patent Assignments Recorded During the First Half of October Trigger Multiple New NPE Campaigns
October 20, 2016During the first half of October 2016, RPX took note of five patent transfers to NPEs. Two of those NPEs, Forward Thinking Tracking LLC and Guada Technologies LLC, have already launched new campaigns asserting recently received patents, collectively filing nearly 30 cases so far this month.
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IP Edge Affiliate Guada Tech Starts New Media Search Campaign
October 14, 2016Guada Technologies LLC (Guada Tech), an NPE apparently affiliated with IP Edge LLC, has started its first litigation campaign, asserting a single information processing patent (7,231,379) in a wave of lawsuits against 7Digital, Batanga, Defy Media, eMusic, iHeartMedia, Major League Baseball, Netflix, Pandora, Reliance Majestic Holdings, Rhapsody, Slacker, Smule, and Spotify. The defendants are each accused of infringement through the provision of keyword search features that allow users to locate music or video content across multiple categories (e.g., album and artist for music and genre and director for movies and TV).
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In New Campaign, Bartonfalls Asserts Channel Changing Patent with Familiar Named Inventor
October 13, 2016Another apparent affiliate of IP Edge LLC, Bartonfalls LLC, has initiated a litigation campaign with a flurry of lawsuits against Advance Publications, Bloomberg, CBS, Comcast (NBC), Consumers Union of United States, Discovery Communications, Disney (ABC), Forbes, Meredith (Allrecipes.com), New York Times, Scripps Networks Interactive, Time Warner (TBS), Viacom, and Ziff-Davis. The new complaints assert a single patent (7,917,922), which relates generally to automatically changing the channel on a television. Bartonfalls accuses the defendants of infringement through mechanisms for automatically changing channels or programs in video platforms available on their websites. For example, the NPE alleges that Viacom infringes when the video player on the MTV website switches from, e.g., Rihanna’s live performance of “Stay / Love on the Brain / Diamonds” to The Chainsmokers’s live performance of “Closer”.
Bartonfalls pleads receipt of the ‘922 patent in a June 10, 2016 assignment, not yet recorded with the USPTO, from Videa, L.L.C., a Michigan entity formed in July 2001 by one of the inventors named on the ‘922 patent, Barry H. Schwab. The other named inventor is John G. Posa, a Michigan patent attorney, currently a partner at Dinsmore in Ann Arbor. The other two, subsequently issuing patents in the ‘922 patent’s family (8,769,561; 9,094,694) have not yet been litigated; it is unclear whether they were part of the June transaction with Videa.
Schwab is a named inventor on multiple issued US patents, several of which have been asserted in litigation. In 2012, Schwab founded Hawk Technology Systems LLC, which days later launched what would become a truly sprawling campaign, with cases filed in a majority of US states against nearly 175 defendants, principally asserting a video monitoring and conversion patent (RE43,462) that issued with named inventors Schwab and Kinya Washino. The most recent cases in the Hawk Technology campaign were filed in mid-September, against Goodwill Industries of Mississippi (3:16-cv-00729), Natchez Casino and Premier Gaming Group (5:16-cv-00080), and The Laurel School District (2:16-cv-00145). The ‘462 patent is a reissue of another patent (5,625,410) that yet another entity, Multi-Format, Inc., co-founded in New Jersey by Schwab and Washino, asserted in an earlier campaign that hit Apple, Dell, HP, Motorola Mobility, and TiVo.
Schwab and Posa are also named inventors on a family of three patents (6,526,219; 6,574,416; 8,150,239) generally related to indexing videos by using a picture. Those patents were asserted by InMotion Imagery Technology, LLC in an Eastern District of Texas campaign stretching from March 2010 to November 2015, hitting nearly 100 defendants. InMotion was formed in Texas in November 2009, first as a subsidiary of Mayan Innovations Management, LLC and later becoming a subsidiary of IntelleQ Holdings, LLC. Both are Georgia entities controlled by Michael W. McLaughlin, the president and CEO of IP Investments Group, LLC (d/b/a IPinvestments Group), a patent monetization firm and patent broker based in Atlanta.
In March 2012, Schwab also formed VOIT Technologies, LLC in Florida. Three days later, he assigned one of his patents (6,226,412), which generally relates to product tracking in an e-commerce platform and belongs to a family of six, to the new entity, asserting it on September 9, 2016 in litigation targeting the websites of Drucker Labs (4:16-cv-00695) and South Texas Tack (1:16-cv-01050). The inventorship of one of the patents (7,418,474) related to the ‘412 patent was the subject of Michigan litigation. Ronald Thomas entered into a set of business relationships with Schwab, later contending that Schwab failed to assign certain patents, including the ‘474 patent, to Thomas, as promised. The case was disposed of on summary judgment, largely in Schwab’s favor, including on the inventorship issue. In January 2010, Schwab also formed Grid Technology, LLC in Michigan, but no patent assignments or litigation seem to have followed. Multiple patents issuing with Schwab as named inventor are now owned by Rateze Remote Mgmt. L.L.C., a Delaware entity formed in January 2008 with unknown management, which has acquired rights in many other patents but does not appear to have filed litigation.
Bartonfalls was formed in Texas on August 31, 2016. Its managing member is Lori LaPray, who appears to be a paralegal at Stoddard & Welsh, PLLC, a Texas law firm, and whose apparent husband, Brandon LaPray, used to work at Austin Hansley, representing eDekka LLC in some of the cases that that IP Edge NPE filed as part of its extensive campaign.
Bartonfalls, 10/11, Advance Publications 2:16-cv-01134, Bloomberg 2:16-cv-01128, CBS 2:16-cv-01129, Comcast (NBC) 2:16-cv-01136, Consumers Union of United States 2:16-cv-01131, Discovery Communications 2:16-cv-01139, Disney (ABC) 2:16-cv-01126, Forbes 2:16-cv-01133, Meredith (Allrecipes.com) 2:16-cv-01127, New York Times 2:16-cv-01138, Scripps Networks Interactive 2:16-cv-01135, Time Warner (TBS) 2:16-cv-01130, Viacom 2:16-cv-01137, Ziff-Davis 2:16-cv-01139, Eastern District of Texas.
VOIT Technologies, 9/9, Drucker Labs, Eastern District of Texas; 9/9, South Texas Tack; Western District of Texas.
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Silkeen Drives the Olivistar Bus Away from Wearables Toward Environmental Sensors
October 4, 2016A fourth NPE to receive patents formerly owned and asserted in litigation by Olivistar LLC, an entity managed by patent monetization firm IP Edge LLC, has now filed cases of its own. On August 31, 2016, Olivistar assigned the patent-in-suit (7,944,469) to Silkeen LLC, which has continued Olivistar’s campaign, albeit in a different market sector. Where Olivistar targeted fitness trackers, Silkeen has filed ten suits alleging infringement through the manufacture and sale of systems having environmental (i.e. temperature and humidity) sensors by defendants Cooper-Atlas, Grid Connect, L-Com, Mesa Monitoring, Monnit, National Instruments (Measurement Computing), Omega Engineering, Onset Computer, Primex Wireless, and TempAlert.
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Wetro LAN Attacks More Firewalls
October 4, 2016Wetro Lan LLC, an affiliate of patent monetization firm IP Edge LLC, has filed its first new cases since early 2015, bringing the number of defendants in this campaign to roughly 60. The new complaints separately assert the same patent (6,795,918) that has been at issue throughout, this time against Check Point Software (5:16-cv-00152), Comodo Group (Comodo Security Solutions) (5:16-cv-00153), Fortinet (5:16-cv-00154), Kaspersky Lab (5:16-cv-00155), and Panda Security (5:16-cv-00156). The ‘918 patent generally relates to filtering and managing data packets in networking equipment and security software; these latest defendants’ firewalls are the accused products.
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Patent Transfers Recorded During the First Half of September 2016 Involve Several Highly Active NPEs
September 23, 2016RPX took note of seven patent transfers to NPEs recorded during the first half of September 2016. Assignees included Mobile Synergy Solutions, LLC (which has ties to Monument Patent Holdings, LLC and Dominion Harbor Group, LLC); Silkeen LLC (a newly formed NPE apparently connected to IP Edge LLC); and Blackbird Tech LLC. NPEs controlled by Monument Patent Holdings or IP Edge have collectively filed over 280 patent infringement cases so far this year, and Blackbird Tech, which has waged 11 litigation campaigns to date, has filed 30 cases in 2016.
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Another New IP Edge Affiliate Takes Over Olivistar Litigation Campaign
September 16, 2016A new Texas NPE called Reef Mountain LLC has picked up the assertion of yet another patent (8,239,481) that Olivistar LLC, an entity managed by patent monetization firm IP Edge LLC, has litigated against many defendants in the past. The new complaints target Aviglion (5:16-cv-00132), Edimax Computer (5:16-cv-00133), Flir Systems (5:16-cv-00134), Swann Communications (5:16-cv-00135), TP-Link (5:16-cv-00136), TRENDnet (5:16-cv-00137), Ubiquiti Networks (5:16-cv-00138), and Vivotek (5:16-cv-00139). The ‘481 patent generally relates to the remote control of devices, and the accused devices are networked cameras. Olivistar has now offloaded five of the six patents that it appears to have owned to four new, apparent IP Edge entities, three of which have launched litigation.
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Venadium Shifts Focus of Campaign Asserting Former Xerox Patent from Bluetooth to Website Login
September 2, 2016In July 2016, the last of the 20 cases brought by Venadium LLC roughly one year earlier was dismissed with prejudice. Six weeks later, the NPE has rebooted its sole litigation campaign by filing five new lawsuits, one each against BuzzFeed (5:16-cv-00118), J.D. Power and Associates (5:16-cv-00119), LivingSocial (5:16-cv-00120), Spotify (5:16-cv-00121), and The Washington Post (5:16-cv-00122). A single, former Xerox patent (6,330,549) generally related to limiting software to authorized use is asserted. Perhaps in light of the shaky infringement allegations in Venadium’s first wave of suits, which targeted Bluetooth-enabled devices, these new complaints allege that the defendants’ websites infringe at least claim 1 of the ‘549 patent through their use of cryptographic protocols (e.g. RSA, Diffie-Hellman, and HMAC) during the login process.
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Venus Locations Launches Four New Suits in Rebooted IP Edge Campaign
August 31, 2016Venus Locations LLC has filed four new lawsuits in its sole litigation campaign, asserting a single patent (6,442,485) generally related to translating GPS location data into map data against Actsoft (2:16-cv-00983), InTouch GPS (2:16-cv-00984), Omnitracs (2:16-cv-00985), and Teletrac (2:16-cv-00986). As in Venus’s first round of litigation, which targeted various companies including AT&T, LYFT, Microsoft, SOFTBANK (Sprint), T-Mobile, Trimble Navigation, and Verizon, the NPE’s latest complaints accuse the defendants of infringement through the provision of GPS, navigation, and fleet tracking services. In April 2016, Venus Locations took this campaign over from NovelPoint Tracking LLC, an NPE formed in Texas in January 2012 by Gautham (Gau) Bodepudi, Sanjay Pant, and Lillian Woung, the principals of patent monetization firm IP Edge LLC.
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NovelPoint Security Hands Baton to Vortex Pathway in Familiar IP Edge Pattern
August 25, 2016RPX reported an assignment, recorded in the first half of July and executed on June 27, of two computer security patents (5,434,562; 6,212,635) from NovelPoint Security LLC, an entity created by the principals of patent monetization firm IP Edge LLC, to Vortex Pathway LLC, a Texas entity created on June 21, 2016. Two months later, Vortex Pathway has now filed eight new complaints, asserting the ‘635 patent against Addonics Technologies (2:16-cv-00961), Chunghwa Telecom (2:16-cv-00956), Fortinet (2:16-cv-00952), Gemalto (2:16-cv-00953), Giesecke & Devrient (2:16-cv-00950), Goldkey (2:16-cv-00957), HID Global (2:16-cv-00954), and Yubico (2:16-cv-00955). Infringement allegations center on the defendants’ FIPS 140-2 standard compliant token security products: Addonics’s Cipher USB Token, Chunghwa’s HiKey PKI Token, Fortinet’s FortiToken 300, Gemalto’s Smart Guardian FIPS Crypto Module, G&D’s StarSign Crypto USB Token, Goldkey’s Security Token, HID’s ActivClient, and Yubico’s YubiKey.
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Bluetooth-Enabled Phones Targeted in Cypaleo’s Latest Round of Litigation
August 25, 2016Avaya (2:16-cv-00945), Grandstream Networks (2:16-cv-00946), Polycom (2:16-cv-00948), and Snom (2:16-cv-00949) are the latest companies to be sued in Cypaleo LLC’s sole litigation campaign. The NPE asserts a single, former Xerox patent (5,638,427) generally related to a networked device for monitoring a machine, the device having multiple communication interfaces. These new complaints bring the number of defendants in the campaign over 25; while past infringement allegations focused on smartphones, tablets, and gaming laptops, Bluetooth-enabled phones with USB ports (e.g. Avaya’s 1140E IP Desk Phone, Grandstream’s GXV3275, Polycom’s VVX600, and Snom’s 760 Desk Telephone) are now at issue.
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Novocrypt Revives Campaign, Pivoting to Smartphones and Tablets
August 25, 2016Roughly one year after the last of the eight cases that Novocrypt LLC filed in February 2015 was dismissed, the NPE has revived its sole litigation campaign with a second wave. Novocrypt has filed new cases against ASUS (5:16-cv-00108), BLU Products (5:16-cv-00109), Coolpad Technologies (5:16-cv-00110), Kyocera (5:16-cv-00111), Lenovo (Motorola Mobility) (5:16-cv-00112), and Nokia (5:16-cv-00113), accusing the defendants of infringement through the sale of smartphones or tablets. A single patent (7,743,213), generally related to a portable storage device with network capability, is again asserted in these recent complaints, but the focus on smartphones and tablets, although predicted over a year ago, is new.
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Autoloxer Campaign Hits Onstar and Tyco
August 24, 2016Autoloxer LLC has brought the number of defendants in its only litigation campaign over ten with two new complaints, one each against GM (Onstar) (2:16-cv-00935) and Tyco (2:16-cv-00936). A single patent (7,084,735) generally related to the remote imposition of limits on the operation of a vehicle is asserted in Autoloxer’s campaign, with the accused products in the new complaints being GM’s Onstar system and Tyco’s MAGTEC system. The other active defendants in the campaign are Yanmar and Manitou, each of which has filed an answer to the complaint filed against it.
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Former Vigilos Patents Asserted in Litigation Yet Again, as Part of Emerging IP Edge Pattern
August 3, 2016Two newly formed Texas NPEs—Autumn Cloud LLC and Banertek LLC—have launched litigation campaigns on the same day. Each NPE has asserted patents transferred to it from Olivistar LLC, itself an NPE, managed by the three principals of patent monetization firm IP Edge LLC, which has previously litigated the patents in its own name. These latest patent transfers to recently formed entities, followed by new litigation of the same patents under a plaintiff with a new name, appears to be a developing pattern for entities affiliated with IP Edge.
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A Series of Second Waves in Pherah, Mod Stack, and Packet Tread Campaigns Filed in July
July 28, 2016Three NPEs formed in Texas in June 2015, Pherah LLC, Mod Stack LLC, and Packet Tread LLC, have kicked off second waves in each of their litigation campaigns over the past month. In the first five days of July, Pherah filed 18 individual complaints, suing the same number of companies of infringing a single patent (RE44,652) through provision of interactive sales features on their websites. A couple of weeks later, Mod Stack asserted a patent (7,460,520) generally related to connecting telephone calls between legacy circuit-switched networks and newer packet-switched networks against the networking products of six defendants: AudioCodes (2:16-cv-00796), Calix (2:16-cv-00797), Metaswitch Networks (2:16-cv-00798), Mitel (2:16-cv-00799), Shoretel (2:16-cv-00800), and Synway Information Engineering (2:16-cv-00801). These new rounds of filings by Mod Stack and Pherah join a second wave of suits lodged by Packet Tread LLC earlier this month (see “Packet Tread’s Campaign Shifts to Unified Communication Systems“, July 2015).
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Patent Assignment Report for the First Half of July 2016
July 21, 2016In the first half of July 2016, RPX saw five patent transfers to NPEs recorded with the USPTO. One of those transactions involved patents that have been previously asserted in litigation against over 50 operating companies.
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Somaltus’s Campaign Shifts Gears to Focus on Rechargeable Portable Computing Battery Systems
July 15, 2016Somaltus LLC has resuscitated its battery service system campaign with new suits against Apple (2:16-cv-00758), ASUS (2:16-cv-00758), Lenovo (2:16-cv-00758), Samsung (2:16-cv-00758), Sony (2:16-cv-00758), and Toshiba (2:16-cv-00758). The complaints assert a single patent (7,657,386) generally related to determining and optimizing the life of a battery and relaying test data to a user. Earlier cases in the campaign targeted automakers (asserting the ‘386 patent against Ford, Nissan) and battery service system providers (asserting a related patent, 8,131,487, against Auto Meter Products, Bosch Automotive Service Solutions, Cadex Electronics), while infringement allegations in the new complaints focus on the battery operations within the defendants’ smartphones and other portable computing products.
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Patent Assignment Report for the Second Half of June 2016
July 8, 2016In the second half of June 2016, RPX saw over 20 patent transfers to NPEs recorded with the USPTO. A number of those transactions involved patents that have been asserted in litigation against operating companies—some as recently as this past week.
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Peppermint Hills Kicks Off Wearables Campaign
July 7, 2016Texas NPE Peppermint Hills LLC has asserted a single patent (8,131,217) generally related to identifying a device via Bluetooth against Adidas, AliphCom, Garmin, Nike, Pebble Technology, Sigma Sport, Timex, TomTom, and Under Armour. The defendants are accused of infringement through provision of smartwatches and other wearable computing devices. Peppermint’s complaints mark the third time an NPE has asserted a former TeliBrahma Technologies patent acquired from Allied Security Trust (as Cactus Flower) on the same day in 2015.
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Dynavair Asserts Former Delphi Battery Cell Balancing Patent Against a Dozen Defendants
July 6, 2016Texas NPE Dynavair LLC has launched litigation for the first time, asserting a single patent (6,271,645) against a dozen defendants, including AMS, Atmel, Cobham Advanced Electronic Solutions, Eaton, Intersil, Linear Technology, Microchip Technology, NXP Semiconductors (Freescale), OKW Electronics, Samsung, SII Semiconductor, and TI. The ‘645 patent generally relates to balancing energy levels between batteries within a pack. The complaints target the defendants’ cell balancing circuit products, particularly (although not exclusively) for implementation among multiple Li-ion batteries.
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New NPE Asserts Familiar Music Sharing Patent in E-Commerce Campaign
June 17, 2016Falkon Treasures LLC, a newly formed NPE based in Texas, has initiated a litigation campaign asserting a single patent (6,233,682) generally related to distributing musical products over the Internet. The entity accuses Adidas (2:16-cv-00653), Barnes & Noble (2:16-cv-00654), Burlington Coat Factory (2:16-cv-00655), GameStop (2:16-cv-00656), and Sun Capital Partners (Limited Stores) (2:16-cv-00657) of infringing the ‘682 patent through websites that offer online gift cards and distribute both electronic and tangible products. While these lawsuits are the first filed by Falkon Treasures, the ‘682 patent has also been involved in two previous litigation campaigns: one started by Batarga LLC in 2015 and another waged by Sharing Sound LLC beginning in 2010.
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Patent Assignment Report for the First Half of June 2016
June 17, 2016In the first half of June 2016, RPX saw six patent transfers to NPEs recorded with the USPTO. At least one of those transactions involved a patent that has already been asserted in litigation.
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April-May 2016 Sees Surge in Activity by IP Edge-Affiliated NPEs
May 27, 2016Over the past two months, four NPEs with apparent connections to patent monetization firm IP Edge LLC have collectively filed nearly 50 patent infringement suits against operating companies. This report provides an overview of each of those four NPEs’ campaigns, which canvass a broad spectrum of defendants in multiple market sectors. Active defendants in these campaigns range from networking companies (Allied Telesis, Sophos) to retailers (1-800-Flowers, Staples), from electronics companies (Hisense, TCL) to wireless carriers (AT&T, T-Mobile).
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After Dismissing 30 Defendants, MagnaCross Shifts Its Focus to Wireless Routers
May 20, 2016Following the dismissal of 30 defendants–some as a result of settlement–and after nearly a year without filing any new suits, MagnaCross LLC lodged 17 new complaints this week, suing ADTRAN (2:16-cv-00507), Allied Telesis (2:16-cv-00509), D-Link Systems (2:16-cv-00512), Belkin International (2:16-cv-00510), CradlePoint (2:16-cv-00511), Sophos (2:16-cv-00515), TRENDNET (2:16-cv-00518), WatchGuard (2:16-cv-00519), and others. MagnaCross initiated this campaign in October 2014 and has since sued over 45 companies, mostly device makers and wireless carriers. While these latest suits involve the same data transmission patent (6,917,304) asserted by MagnaCross throughout this campaign, the NPE appears to have shifted its focus from mobile devices and base stations to wireless routers.
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BSG Tech Keeps E-Commerce Campaign Alive with Five More Suits
May 19, 2016On the heels of dismissal in the last remaining cases that it filed in June 2015, BSG Tech LLC has added five new suits, bringing the number of defendants in its sole litigation campaign to over 50. The new complaints, like the NPE’s previous filings, target the e-commerce websites of defendants 1-800-Flowers.com (Harry and David) (2:16-cv-00531), Autozone.com (2:16-cv-00529), Liberty Interactive (BuySeasons) (2:16-cv-00530), Rakuten (2:16-cv-00532), and Staples (2:16-cv-00533). In state records, BSG Tech has identified as its member Yun Sun Chong, an individual with connections to multiple other Texas NPEs.
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Patent Assignment Report for the First Half of April 2016
April 21, 2016During the first half of April 2016, RPX saw eleven patent transfers to known NPEs recorded with the USPTO. One of those transactions involved a patent that has already been asserted in litigation against operating companies.
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Another IP Edge-Affiliated Campaign Reboots Under New Plaintiff Entity, Kevique Technology
April 10, 2016Several weeks after dismissal of the last defendant accused of infringing a familiar patent (7,808,483) by Long Corner Consumer Electronics LLC (LCCE), new Texas NPE Kevique Technology LLC received ownership of the ‘483 patent and asserted it in a new wave of litigation. The latest nine defendants are HiSense (2:16-cv-00366), Honeywell (2:16-cv-00367), Janam Technologies (2:16-cv-00368), Matsunichi Digital (2:16-cv-00369), MiTAC (Getac) (2:16-cv-00365), Motorola Solutions (2:16-cv-00370), Supersonic (2:16-cv-00371), TCL (TCT Mobile) (2:16-cv-00372), and Zebra Technologies (2:16-cv-00373). The ‘483 patent generally relates to moving graphical objects displayed on the screen of a device in response to movement of that device. At issue in the campaign are devices with touchscreens and orientation sensors.
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Venus Keeps GPS Navigation Campaign, Begun by IP Edge-Affiliated NovelPoint, on the Map
April 7, 2016A new entity has taken over assertion of a familiar patent (6,442,485), already litigated in Texas against over 100 defendants. Venus Locations LLC has filed 18 complaints alleging that various additional companies—including AT&T, LYFT, Microsoft, SOFTBANK (Sprint), T-Mobile, Trimble Navigation, and Verizon—infringe the ‘485 patent, which generally relates to translating GPS location data into map data. The complaints accuse the defendants of infringement through provision of GPS, navigation, and fleet tracking services.
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After Three January Dismissals, Autoloxer Files Five More Cases in February
February 17, 2016On the heels of three dismissals, Autoloxer LLC has kept is sole litigation campaign going with five new cases, one each against vehicle manufacturers Atlas Copco (2:16-cv-00139), Liebherr Cranes (2:16-cv-00140), Manitou (2:16-cv-00141), Sandvik (2:16-cv-00142), and Yanmar (2:16-cv-00143). The complaints assert a single patent (7,084,735) generally related to the remote imposition of limits on the operation of a vehicle. Autoloxer’s infringement allegations target the defendants’ remote control systems for its vehicles: Atlas Copco Rig Control System, Leibherr’s LICCON2, Manitou’s Radio Remote Boom Control System, Sandvik’s DTi series, and Yanmar’s Smart Assist.
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