Rothschild Storage Retrieval Innovations, LLC

Rothschild Patent Imaging LLC (RPI) filed eight new suits this week, accusing Badoo Trading Limited (d/b/a Badoo Software Ltd.), Foursquare, Grindr, MeetMe, Photobucket, Skout, TangoMe, and Yahoo (Tumblr) of infringing an image processing patent (8,437,797). At issue are the defendants’ mobile applications that allow users to send photos to each other. To date, nearly thirty companies have been sued over the ‘797 patent via three separate litigation campaigns, all waged by various entities controlled by inventor Leigh M. Rothschild. Past defendants include Apple, Canon, HTC, LG Electronics, Microsoft, Panasonic, Samsung, and Sony, as well as Ricoh, which was sued earlier this month.

Inventor Leigh M. Rothschild has kicked off October with nine new patent suits—five filed by Battery Conservation Innovations, LLC (BCI), three by Scanning Technologies Innovations, LLC (STI), and one by Rothschild Patent Imaging LLC (RPI). On October 4, STI lodged five separate complaints against Bindo Labs, iConnect, Lightspeed, Microbiz, and Smartosc, accusing the defendants’ point-of-sale systems of infringing a mobile device patent (9,053,498). BCI launched its first and sole litigation campaign to date two days later with suits against Easton Sports, Sony, and Zepp Sports, alleging infringement of a patent generally related to a battery-conserving flashlight (9,239,158). Smart athletic sensors are the accused products. RPI closed out the first week of October with a complaint against Ricoh, accusing the company of infringing an image processing patent (8,437,797) through provision of its Pentax K-S2 camera. With these latest filings, NPEs controlled by Rothschild—which to date number over 20—have filed more than 260 patent infringement suits against operating companies.

The number of infringement suits filed by NPEs controlled by inventor Leigh M. Rothschild sharply increased last year, with over 140 patent cases filed in 2015 compared to just 35 in 2014. In fact, according to RPX’s 2015 NPE Activity: Highlights report published on January 4, 2016, Rothschild ranked first among the top ten NPEs by campaign defendants added in 2015.

Rothschild Storage Retrieval Innovations initiated its first campaign with seven infringement suits against Apple, HTC, LG, Motorola Mobility, Nokia, Samsung, and Sony. The complaints accuse defendants’ smartphones, tablets, and digital audio devices of infringing a patent related to exchange of digital images between two devices (8,437,797). The patent originated with Rothschild Mobile Imaging Innovations and does not appear to have been previously litigated. In early July 2014, Leigh M. Rothschild changed the name of Rothschild Beverage Innovations to Rothschild Storage Retrieval Innovations; days later, one of his other entities, Rothschild Mobile Imaging Innovations, assigned the ‘797 patent to the plaintiff entity.