Tessera Holding Corporation

In October 2017, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) saw the filing of petitions for inter partes review (IPR) against a variety of frequent litigants, including publicly traded NPEs Acacia Research Corporation and Xperi Corporation, as well as privately held Monument Patent Holdings, LLC and Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited. The Board also instituted trial in October for IPRs against multiple Acacia subsidiaries, Uniloc, and Papst Licensing GmbH & Company Kg. In addition, the PTAB issued an IPR final decision cancelling multiple claims from a data compression patent held by prolific plaintiff Realtime Data LLC, including the single claim that Riverbed Technology (one of the petitioners for the IPR) was found to infringe in a $4.3M verdict in May, with other final decisions issued in campaigns waged by TQ Delta LLC and publicly traded Quarterhill Inc. IPRs against IP Bridge, Inc. and Mobile Telecommunications Technologies, LLC also ended in termination in October after the patent owners requested adverse judgments.

Publicly traded Xperi Corporation disclosed on October 11 that a German court has issued a tentative invalidity ruling against a semiconductor patent that the NPE has asserted against Broadcom and Avago. On October 5, the Federal Patent Court held that the patent at issue “may be invalid for various reasons” in a nullity, or invalidity, action filed by Avago (2 Ni 43/16), leading Xperi to delay the enforcement of an infringement ruling for that patent issued against Broadcom and Avago in March, with that litigation brought by several plaintiff entities under Xperi’s Tessera and Invensas brands. The same patent is also at issue in another Invensas lawsuit filed against Samsung on September 28. Meanwhile, available litigation records also indicate that nullity actions filed by Haier and ZTE are proceeding in a campaign waged by patent licensing firm Sisvel International S.A. over a portfolio of allegedly standard essential wireless patents, following a recent setback for the NPE in its parallel infringement suit against ZTE.

Automakers have increasingly doubled down on self-driving car technology in the past few years, with newer entrants like Tesla competing with established automakers toward the goal of developing fully autonomous vehicles. A series of patent acquisitions made by Uber this year emphasizes the importance of IP protection for establishing a foothold in the field of autonomous driving and indicates that companies have begun to see the growing litigation risk surrounding self-driving systems. Meanwhile, as the industry seems poised to explode, players outside the automotive sector have begun to enter the market. Intel’s August acquisition of Mobileye, a leader in artificial vision technology for autonomous vehicles, is a notable example of how important self-driving technology will be to the broader tech industry.

On September 28, five subsidiaries of publicly traded Xperi Corporation filed suit against Samsung across multiple US and international jurisdictions, including complaints brought in the Eastern District of Texas and the Districts of Delaware and New Jersey as well as with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) and in courts in Germany and the Netherlands. The complaints target Samsung’s Galaxy S6, S7, S8, and Note 8 smartphones and various semiconductor products, including the company’s Exynos mobile processors; power management integrated circuits (PMICs); memory; image sensors; camera modules with zoom and/or autofocus features; and accelerometers.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) continued to see petitions for AIA review filed against prolific litigants in July, including a wave of petitions against Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited across four separate campaigns, with petitions also brought against General Patent Corporation, Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV), Papst Licensing GmbH & Company Kg, and Quarterhill Inc. Meanwhile, throughout July, the Board instituted trial for inter partes reviews (IPRs) filed in semiconductor campaigns waged by Harvard University and the California Institute of Technology, with trial also instituted in campaigns related to network data compression (Realtime Data LLC), servers and data management (IV), and anti-malware technology (Finjan Holdings, Inc.). Final decisions issued by the Board in July included one that cancelled claims from a patent that has been asserted by Rothschild Connected Devices Innovations, LLC, an NPE controlled by inventor Leigh M. Rothschild, against more than 60 defendants.

Recent European litigation activity has included several developments in German cases brought by subsidiaries of American NPEs, with a stay entered in two lawsuits brought by ParkerVision, Inc. and the affirmance of an injunction for Xperi Corporation. Meanwhile, plaintiffs originating in Europe have varied widely in size, financial resources, and level of activity, with one of Europe’s most persistent litigants (IPCom GmbH & Co KG) backed by financing from the US-based Fortress Investment Group LLC.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) saw petitions for AIA review filed against a variety of prolific litigants in June 2017, including General Patent Corporation, Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV), Quarterhill Inc. (f/k/a Wi-LAN Inc.), Realtime Data LLC, Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited, and Xperi Corporation (f/k/a Tessera Holding Corporation). Also in June, the PTAB instituted trial for petitions brought against patents asserted in a variety of sprawling campaigns, including some waged by Acacia Research Corporation, IV, Papst Licensing, Quarterhill, and VirnetX Inc. The Board further issued final decisions throughout June in AIA reviews against patents involved in several notable campaigns, including some waged by Document Security Systems, Inc., Elm 3DS Innovations LLC, Empire IP LLC, and Quarterhill.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) saw 54 petitions for AIA review brought against NPEs in May, up from 20 such petitions filed in April. May PTAB filings included a resurgence in petitions against publicly traded NPEs, including Acacia Research Corporation; Pendrell Corporation; Quest Patent Research Corporation; VoIP-Pal.com, Inc.; Xperi Corporation (f/k/a Tessera Holding Corporation); and Wi-LAN Inc. (WiLAN) (which was renamed to Quarterhill Inc. on June 1). A variety of private litigants were also hit by PTAB petitions in May, including Blackbird Tech LLC, Global Equity Management (SA) Pty. Ltd., General Patent Corporation, Realtime Data LLC, and Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited.

Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC (DHE), an affiliate of patent monetization firm Dominion Harbor Group, LLC (DHG), has formed a new European licensing partnership with Swedish IP brokerage and consulting firm Parallel North IP AB. In a press release issued on May 3, DHE announced that it will work with Parallel North IP to monetize the portfolio of former Kodak imaging patents that DHG subsidiary Monument Peak Ventures, LLC acquired from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) in February. DHE describes the deal with Parallel North IP as part of a “comprehensive global plan to commercialize” the Kodak portfolio.

Publicly traded NPE Finjan Holdings, Inc. has announced a product partnership with German security software provider Avira, the same day that the two companies entered into an apparently separate $4.9M patent license agreement. Under the terms of the partnership, formed on April 21 and revealed in an April 26 press release, Finjan subsidiary Finjan Mobile, Inc. will integrate Avira’s Virtual Private Network (VPN) platform into its own VitalSecurity mobile browser suite. This deal is the first of its kind for Finjan, which continues to wage a decade-long litigation campaign that has seen multiple trials and settlements, and comes as other publicly traded NPEs have signaled that they intend to diversify their activities and move beyond patent assertion alone.

RPX took notice, among the USPTO assignment records made available during the first part of April, of the transfer of patents from operating companies including GlobalFoundries, NXP Semiconductors, Panasonic, and Toshiba. Also noted was an assignment of nearly 950 patents from Intellectual Ventures LLC to Monument Patent Holdings, LLC (one of the Top Ten NPEs in 2016, by defendants added and new campaigns filed). While some of April’s transactions involved patents that have already been litigated, most involve assets not yet seen in litigation, suggesting that the launch of several new campaigns is imminent.

RPX took note, among the USPTO assignment records made available during the second half of March 2017, of the transfer of hundreds of patents to two Wi-LAN Inc. subsidiaries, one of which has not yet filed suit. Also noted are assignments of patents to Monument Patent Holdings, LLC, to Intellectual Ventures LLC, and to Xperi Corporation, among others.

Invensas Corporation, a subsidiary of publicly traded Xperi Corporation, announced on March 20 that a German court has issued infringement rulings in two of the NPE’s cases against Broadcom (7 O 97/16, 7 O 98/16). On March 17, the District Court of Mannheim reportedly held that Broadcom and German distributors Arrow Central Europe, EBV Elektronik, and Mouser Electronics infringe the German designation of European patent EP 1 186 034 B1 through the provision of products incorporating certain Broadcom chips. The two judgments purportedly included injunctive relief.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board saw the filing of petitions against a host of publicly traded NPEs in February, including Acacia Research Corporation, Pendrell Corporation, Wi-LAN Inc. (WiLAN), and Xperi Corporation (f/k/a Tessera Holding Corporation), with challenges also filed in campaigns waged by Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV); IP Bridge, Inc.; Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited; and Monument Patent Holdings, LLC.

For the fourth quarter of 2016, InterDigital, Inc. has reported that its revenue more than doubled over the same period last year due to the signing of a key license agreement with Huawei, with net income more than four times higher than in Q4 2015. However, Tessera Holding Corporation recorded a loss for the fourth quarter of this year, citing costs related to its acquisition of DTS Corporation in December. In contrast with InterDigital, Tessera has increasingly sought to characterize itself as a product licensing company, announcing the day before its earnings report that it has rebranded itself as Xperi Corporation.