KAIFI LLC

Patent transfers recently made public by the USPTO include multiple assignments between NPEs, several of which have litigated previously received assets, but others of which are new and have yet to file suit. They also include a grant to the US Treasury Department of four assets, one of which was “litigated” through this past July, when Western District of Texas Judge Alan D. Albright, on the court’s own motion, brought the campaign to an end.

In April 2019, Kaifi, LLC, a Texas plaintiff associated with Intellectual Discovery Co., Ltd., launched its Wi-Fi calling campaign with a single case accusing AT&T of infringing a patent generally directed to maintaining connectivity when a user moves from an inside to outside, with the same backend infrastructure managing the handoffs. That case ended in early August 2020 after District Judge Rodney Gilstrap handed down an April 2020 order construing multiple terms from the patent’s claims and while the court was in receipt of a large number of motions for summary judgment and to strike contentions and related expert opinions, as well as an earlier motion to dismiss for lack of standing—the related papers for nearly all of which were filed under seal. Kaifi has now reupped its campaign, accusing Deutsche Telekom (IBSV, Layer3 TV, MetroPCS, Theory Mobile, T-Mobile) (2:20-cv-00281) and Verizon (Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless) (2:20-cv-00280) of infringing the same patent in separate complaints, also filed in the Eastern District of Texas.