Front Row Technologies LLC

Front Row Technologies LLC has sued Cisco (6:23-cv-00035) and u-blox (3:23-cv-00157), asserting a single patent generally related to access permissions in a “venue positioning system” based on the location of a “wireless hand held device”. Cisco is accused of infringement through the provision of its Hyperlocation Modulation; u-blox, through the provision of Bluetooth indoor positioning. The patent belongs to a large family that has seen its members litigated by three plaintiffs associated with Ortiz & Lopez, PLLC (d/b/a OL PATENTS) since 2008. Front Row filed the earliest cases in this campaign, but after a set of Alice invalidations, litigation continued through two other, associated plaintiffs.

On the heels of three voluntary dismissals in cases brought in February of this year, Mesa Digital LLC has filed two new complaints, one each against Huawei (2:18-cv-00285) and ZTE (1:18-cv-04775). The suits assert the same two patents, generally related to “multimedia” mobile devices, seen in the recently dismissed complaints against Amazon (voluntarily dismissed without prejudice), BlackBerry (with prejudice), and Sony (without prejudice). At issue are smartphones, with Huawei’s P10 and ZTE’s Axon Elite called out in each complaint.

Named inventors from a large family of patents, generally related to “multimedia” mobile devices, have filed a second wave of cases, this time through plaintiff Mesa Digital LLC. The new complaints accuse Amazon (1:18-cv-00919), BlackBerry (1:18-cv-00921), Lenovo (1:18-cv-00922), and Sony (1:18-cv-00924) of infringement through the manufacture and sale of certain smartphones. Kermit D. Lopez and Luis M. Ortiz, patent lawyers and named partners at Ortiz & Lopez, PLLC (d/b/a OL PATENTS), asserted eight patents from the same family in a campaign brought by Front Row Technologies LLC, which ended after the Federal Circuit affirmed a district court decision invalidating those eight patents as directed to patent-ineligible subject matter under Alice.

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