Red Rock Analytics, LLC

Western District of Texas Judge Alan D. Albright recently docketed a public version of an order that denied Apple a transfer for convenience (to the Northern District of California) a case filed by Proxense, LLC against it. As RPX reported last week, that order, among other things, seems to invite an appeal, to sort out an apparent conflict between Fifth and Federal Circuit law concerning how the relative congestion between the current and proposed courts can be weighed, particularly in NPE cases. Six days later, Judge Albright has denied Apple (together with Qualcomm) another convenience transfer, this one opposed by a plaintiff that has encouraged the court to disregard Federal Circuit guidance where it conflicts with the Fifth.

More than three years after defendants Apple and Qualcomm filed a motion for a convenience transfer, plaintiff Red Rock Analytics, LLC has filed a fifth supplemental brief with Western District of Texas Judge Alan D. Albright. That brief attempts to liken the posture of the Red Rock case to that of Resonant Systems, Inc. (d/b/a RevelHMI), in which the Federal Circuit turned away a petition for a writ of mandamus that would have required Judge Albright to transfer a RevelHMI case against Apple to the Northern District of California. Apple and Qualcomm have responded to Red Rock’s latest supplemental; Judge Albright—more than three years and ticking—has yet to rule.

Red Rock Analytics, LLC sued Apple and Qualcomm in April 2021 in the Western District of Texas. In August of that year, the defendants filed a motion to transfer venue for convenience to the Northern District of California. Claim construction briefing has gone into the court, but in June 2022 District Judge Alan D. Albright stayed proceedings pending resolution of the motion to transfer, the Federal Circuit having warned that the merits of a case should not be touched until threshold matters, like a convenience transfer request, are decided. On the third anniversary of its filing, the defendants’ transfer motion has been briefed through sur-sur-reply, with four subsequent supplements having been filed, the fourth in March 2024. Since then, the docket has been quiet.

Western District of Texas Judge Alan D. Albright recently authorized inventor-controlled plaintiff Red Rock Analytics, LLC to file a fourth supplemental brief in opposition to a motion to transfer to the Northern District of California from defendants Apple and Qualcomm. The August 2021 motion itself was long ago briefed through sur-sur-reply, with three prior sets of supplementals going in. Red Rock filed the fourth supplemental because in its last update, it had represented that as of June 2023, “[o]ther than In re Google, no decision from the Fifth Circuit, the Federal Circuit, or any Federal court of appeals has ever held that ‘product competition’ should be considered under the court congestion factor”—a characterization of the convenience transfer landscape that is no longer true.

Inventor-controlled Red Rock Analytics, LLC sued Apple for the second time in April 2021, naming Qualcomm as a codefendant in its Western District of Texas complaint. The defendants filed a motion to transfer the case for convenience to the Northern District of California in August 2021. This past week, Red Rock filed its third supplemental brief in opposition to that still-pending motion, the plaintiff urging District Judge Alan D. Albright to ignore the Federal Circuit’s holding from In re Google, characterizing that decision as contradicting controlling Fifth Circuit law concerning convenience transfers, and to credit Red Rock’s expert testimony, which purports to assign a specific dollar amount on the “economic opportunity cost” of a seven-month delay in time-to-trial between the two districts. That delay is now significantly dwarfed by the roughly 24 months that the motion to transfer has sat fully briefed through sur-sur-reply.   

The last time that inventor-controlled Red Rock Analytics, LLC sued Apple it targeted the provision of devices—various models of iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple Watch, Airport, Time Capsule, and Mac as well as the Homepod—compliant with the 802.11n Wi-Fi standard and with later versions of Wi-Fi (“e.g. 802.11ac, 802.11ad, and/or 802.11ax”), including “802.11n and later wireless transceivers made by Broadcom”. It did so without naming Broadcom itself as a defendant. Now, a couple of years later, Red Rock has tagged Apple (6:21-cv-00346) over the same patent again, this time naming Qualcomm as a codefendant, identifying as the Qualcomm accused products certain 5G wireless transceivers and Wi-Fi 6 wireless transceivers, while Apple is targeted over products, including its iPhone 12-series smartphones, that allegedly incorporate certain of those 5G wireless transceivers (SDR865, SDX55M, and SMR526).

Inventor-controlled Red Rock Analytics, LLC has filed a second suit in the litigation campaign begun in February 2017, suing Apple (2:19-cv-00117) in the Eastern District of Texas over the same patent. That patent broadly concerns transceivers with a system for calibrating I and Q signals, with infringement allegations in the new complaint focused on devices—various models of iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple Watch, Airport, Time Capsule, and Mac as well as the Homepod—compliant with the 802.11n Wi-Fi standard and with later versions of Wi-Fi (“e.g. 802.11ac, 802.11ad, and/or 802.11ax”), including “802.11n and later wireless transceivers made by Broadcom”. This new case follows as the prior suit, filed against Samsung in the same district, appears to be headed toward dismissal on the eve of trial.

An inventor-controlled NPE, Red Rock Analytics, LLC, has filed suit against Samsung (2:17-cv-00101), asserting a single patent (7,346,313) generally related to transceivers with a system for calibrating I and Q signals. At issue in the complaint are Samsung networking devices, mobile phones, and tablet and notebook computers with high data rate transceivers. Red Rock was formed in Massachusetts by John Herbert Cafarella, an MIT-trained electrical engineer named as an inventor on multiple patents.