Terrestrial Comms LLC

The late 2019 peel off by Intellectual Ventures, LLC (IV) of more than 3,500 US assets to a batch of Georgia NPEs has ousted Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC from its long-held position as the top NPE assignee of IV divestitures. Meanwhile, as discussed in RPX’s Q1 in Review blog post, throughout the first quarter, NPEs continued filing new litigation asserting patents received from IV, hitting a broad range of targets, including over patents developed by major operating companies.

Terrestrial Comms LLC, an entity associated with Texas monetization firm IPValuation Partners, LLC (d/b/a IPVal), has launched a second litigation campaign from a portfolio of wireless communications and mobile devices patents received from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) in December 2018. The NPE has asserted subsets of six of those patents against ACCO Brands (6:20-cv-00097), Best Buy (6:20-cv-00106), NEC (6:20-cv-00096), and Perixx Computer (6:20-cv-00105) in complaints filed last week in the Western District of Texas. The accused products include wireless keyboard and mouse combination products provided by ACCO, Best Buy, and Perixx; NEC’s MultiPresenter Stick; and NEC’s SL1100 telephone systems.

Two late 2018 divestitures by Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) were recorded with the USPTO this past week. One of those transactions has already resulted in a new campaign, launched by an associate of IPValuation Partners (d/b/a IPVal) on October 14. Meanwhile, patents from the second IV divestiture—which include assets originating from major operating companies, and which were received by an apparent newcomer to patent assertion—look likely to appear in litigation soon.

Early last week, Terrestrial Comms LLC, an entity associated with Texas monetization firm IPValuation Partners, LLC (d/b/a IPVal), recorded the assignment of more than two dozen US patents, as well as related international assets, from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV). A day earlier, the NPE had asserted the first of those received patents—one generally related call screening through a three-way connection—in litigation, accusing NEC (6:19-cv-00597) of infringement through the provision of NEC DSX80/DSX160 telephone systems, with allegations focused on the “Live Call Screening” feature that allows users to listen in on the caller’s voicemail message real time.