Sisvel International S.A.

The past two weeks have seen juries in two popular patent venues hand down infringement verdicts. On October 16, a Delaware jury found that smartphone maker HTC infringed two cellular networking patents asserted against it by 3G Licensing S.A. and awarded $9M in damages, just the latest chapter in a slimmed-down case that has survived a trip to the Federal Circuit and back. The week before, a jury in the Western District of Texas issued a $240M verdict for StreamScale, Inc. against Cloudera, finding that the company infringed three data protection patents held by the inventor-controlled plaintiff.

Delaware plaintiff NexGen Control Systems LLC has filed its first litigation, suing NXP Semiconductors in two separate Eastern District of Texas complaints, one targeting the provision of various automobile computing products, including the Peripheral Sensor Interface 5 (PSI5) system, FXOS8700CQ series devices, and the MC33789 Airbag System Basis Chip and related inertial sensors (5:23-cv-00022); and the other targeting the provision of various devices such as chipsets, controllers, drivers, and integrated circuits (5:23-cv-00025). All six patents now in suit share a development history, at Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (MELCO), multiple assigned portfolios of which have spawned recent litigation.

Last September, District Judge Gregory B. Williams took the federal Delaware bench, alongside Chief Judge Colm F. Connolly and Judges Richard G. Andrews and Maryellen Noreika, after Judge Leonard P. Stark left to join the Federal Circuit. Delaware has long been one of the busiest venues for patent litigation; it is therefore no surprise that six months into his tenure Judge Williams has now faced and resolved a good number of issues arising from the patent portion of his docket. In that time, with several trials on the horizon, he has issued multiple claim construction rulings; considered and resolved multiple Alice challenges; addressed discovery related to a third-party litigation funder; navigated, at least initially, a potential standing issue arising from the international source of patents that the plaintiff purportedly acquired through a receivership; and refused to enter a default judgment because the plaintiff’s pleading in the complaint “can charitably be described as sparse”, too sparse to establish infringement even upon default.

Last week, RPX pointed readers to a string of recent NPE campaigns asserting patents received from Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (MELCO). Now, more such patents have appeared in litigation, this time brought by MELCO itself—with coplaintiff Sisvel International S.A.—against TCL (8:22-cv-01073). In a complaint filed on May 27 in the Central District of California, the plaintiffs target certain mobile devices and data terminals capable of communicating over LTE wireless communications networks within the US.

PanOptis Patent Management, LLC; Optis Cellular Technology, LLC; Unwired Planet, LLC; and Unwired Planet International Limited (collectively, PanOptis) have sued Ford (2:22-cv-00133) in the Eastern District of Texas, asserting a group of former Ericsson or Panasonic patents and targeting connected vehicles alleged to communicate according to the 4G/LTE cellular network standard. PanOptis appears to be the latest to join a line of Avanci, LLC licensors taking aim at Ford.

On the heels of an Alice setback in that District of Delaware cases that it filed in June 2019, Aegis 11 S.A., an affiliate of Sisvel International S.A. (d/b/a Sisvel Group), has added Northern District of Georgia suits against Funai (1:20-cv-03890) and Hisense (1:20-cv-03891) to the campaign. Last year, Aegis 11 hit Belkin, CommScope (ARRIS, Ruckus Wireless), NETGEAR, Roku, and TCL (TTE Technology) with separate cases targeting devices compatible with the 802.11ac wireless networking standard. The defendants challenged one of the three patents-in-suit as patent-ineligibly directed to the abstract idea of “generating and using random numbers for the purpose of mutual authentication”. Earlier this month, District Judge Richard G. Andrews agreed with a magistrate recommendation that that patent be invalidated. Now, Aegis 11 has asserted the remaining two patents in its Georgia complaints, adding a third, all of them originally sourced from LG Electronics (LGE). The NPE has also moved to amend its June 2019 complaints to assert the new patent.

Earlier this year, an assignment from Shanghai Langbo Communication Technology—a self-described “IP-centric start-up company” focused on “4G and 5G SEP creation”—to Sisvel International S.A. came to light. Now, a second assignment by Langbo has surfaced, this time to Chris Dubuc’s new monetization firm Harfang IP Investment Corp (d/b/a Harfang IP), suggesting that the research lab, founded in 2013, is exploring options for monetizing its “5G patents”.

NPE litigation in the Automotive market sector during the first four months of 2020 was up nearly threefold from the same time period last year. Most recently, 21ST CENTURY GARAGE LLC and Sisvel International S.A. (d/b/a Sisvel Group) have taken aim at companies operating in the sector, but the year so far has seen new campaigns launched by plaintiffs ranging from relatively recent entrants to patent monetization (e.g., Quartz Auto Technologies, LLC) to established players (e.g., Conversant Wireless Licensing, S.à.r.l.), as well as additional cases filed in existing campaigns waged by inventor-controlled Omega Patents, L.L.C. and frequent plaintiff Leigh M. Rothschild. From wireless connectivity to more traditional automotive technologies, something about 2020 has drawn more litigation to the sector.

The German Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof) has issued a long-awaited decision on fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory (FRAND) patent licensing, ruling in favor of patent pool administrator Sisvel International S.A. earlier this month in a long-running standard essential patent (SEP) dispute with Haier over mobile devices. The Sisvel v. Haier decision reportedly sets a higher bar for accused infringers hoping to show that their prior licensing behavior had been FRAND-compliant. It is also the first FRAND ruling by Germany’s highest patent court since the Court of Justice of the European Union’s (CJEU’s) 2015 decision in Huawei v. ZTE, which established a framework for injunctive relief in SEP litigation.

Earlier this month, Sisvel International S.A. (d/b/a Sisvel Group) added a District of Delaware case against Dell to the networking campaign that it began in that district in June with suits against six other defendants. The original complaints in the June cases asserted five former Nokia patents, but subsequent amended complaints added accusations as to seven former BlackBerry patents (or a subset of those patents) to all prior complaints except the BLU Products complaint. Dell was hit with all 12 patents at once, as is the situation with Sisvel’s new suit against ZTE (3:19-cv-01694), filed in the Northern District of Texas by Sisvel and a sister subsidiary, 3G Licensing S.A., to which Sisvel pleads that it assigned the former BlackBerry patents on July 11, 2019. ZTE is accused of infringement through the provision of the Axon, Blade, Grand, and Nubia series smartphones.

Sisvel International S.A. (d/b/a Sisvel Group) has added another District of Delaware case, this one against Dell (1:19-cv-01247), to the litigation campaign that it began there with early June suits against AnyDATA, BLU Products, Cradlepoint, Honeywell, Verifone, and Xirgo Technologies. Those cases saw five former Nokia patents asserted, each of which Dell is accused of infringing as well, but the new suit adds accusations as to seven former BlackBerry patents. At issue is Dell’s provision of the 5510 Mobile Broadband Wireless Cellular Modem, Latitude 5000 and 7000 Series computers, the Precision 3520 Workstation laptop, and the Precision 7000 Series computers.

Aegis 11 S.A., an affiliate of Sisvel International S.A. (d/b/a Sisvel Group), has launched a litigation campaign targeting devices compatible with the 802.11ac wireless networking standard. The defendants are Belkin (1:19-cv-01161), CommScope (ARRIS, Ruckus Wireless) (1:19-cv-01164), NETGEAR (1:19-cv-01162), Roku (1:19-cv-01163), and TCL (TTE Technology) (1:19-cv-01165), each sued in the District of Delaware and against which the NPE asserts the same three former LG Electronics (LGE) patents.

Sisvel International S.A. (d/b/a Sisvel Group) has kicked off a new litigation campaign, suing AnyDATA (1:19-cv-01140), BLU Products (1:19-cv-01141), Cradlepoint (1:19-cv-01142), Honeywell (1:19-cv-01143), Verifone (1:19-cv-01144), and Xirgo Technologies (1:19-cv-01145) in the District of Delaware. The defendants are each accused of infringing the same five wireless communications patents originating with Nokia and acquired in April 2012. Sisvel has targeted the defendants’ provision of certain devices and chipsets that implement cellular networking standards (e.g., 3G modules, credit card readers, modems, routers, trackers, etc.).

The US Supreme Court caused a dramatic realignment in patent venue through its May 2017 decision in TC Heartland, ruling that the patent-specific venue statute governs in patent suits and confirming that corporations “reside” in their state of incorporation. However, in that opinion, the Court explicitly declined to address any impact on foreign defendants or to revisit an earlier holding that preserved a far more expansive rule for such parties. That 1972 decision, Brunette Machine Works v. Kockum Industries, reaffirmed that foreign defendants may be sued in any district, a longstanding principle known as the “alien venue rule”. Now, the Court has strengthened Brunette by denying a petition for certiorari in which HTC had argued that Brunette was inconsistent with TC Heartland and the general venue statute, as amended in 2011.

In August 2017, Sisvel International S.A. (d/b/a Sisvel Group) launched a litigation campaign over a portfolio of former Panasonic patents allegedly essential to the practice of the ITU G.994.1 standard related to DSL technology, asserting nine of them first against CenturyLink and then Frontier Communications. At the end of this past September, the CenturyLink case ended in a dismissal with prejudice after multiple stays to permit the parties to finalize an agreement resolving their disputes, and a similar set of stays has been entered in the case against Frontier, suggesting that an end to that case is imminent. Against this backdrop, Sisvel has filed a new suit, against Verizon (1:18-cv-01742), asserting the same nine patents and accusing Verizon of infringement through the provision of “DSL technology, equipment and services” that comply with the same standard.

Delaware District Judge Leonard P. Stark has ruled that a wireless data patent asserted against a host of mobile device makers—including BlackBerry, HTC, Lenovo, LG Electronics (LGE), and TCL—is invalid under Alice. Judge Stark’s March 22 opinion acknowledged the Federal Circuit’s recent decision in Aatrix Software v. Green Shades Software, which bars a Rule 12 Alice decision on subject matter eligibility when factual disputes remain over a patent’s inventiveness, but the court’s Section 101 analysis otherwise focused on issues of law as in pre-Aatrix cases. The invalidated patent is one of several at issue in a campaign jointly waged by patent monetization and licensing firm Sisvel International S.A. and Koninklijke KPN N.V., a telecom provider based in the Netherlands.

Sisvel International S.A., through Italian subsidiary S.I.Sv.El. Societa’ Italiana Per Lo Sviluppo Dell’Elettronica S.p.A. (Sisvel Italy), has initiated a new campaign, asserting for the first time patents received from Philips in December 2016. The defendants are Rakuten (Rakuten Kobo) (1:18-cv-00068), Rhapsody (1:18-cv-00069), and Spotify (1:18-cv-00070), each of which is accused of infringing at least two of five former Philips patents, generally related to storage and association of user profiles/metadata with “content items”, through the provision of media recommendation features that factor in user preferences.

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.

European NPE litigation has begun to see a shift toward the UK for litigation of standard essential patents (SEPs) and fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) licensing disputes in the wake of the UK High Court of Justice’s decision in Unwired Planet v. Huawei. Meanwhile, NPEs litigating in Germany have seen mixed success in their pursuit of injunctive relief, against frequent defendants, in recent weeks, with multiple German NPE suits also ending in settlement in campaigns waged by publicly traded American NPEs.

Cases against Lenovo (1:17-cv-01088) and LG Electronics (LGE) (1:17-cv-01089) have been added to the litigation campaign begun in mid-July by Hera Wireless S.A. and Sisvel UK Limited. The complaints assert four patents generally related to wireless communications, with the NPEs accusing the defendants of infringement through the manufacture and/or sale of devices that operate in compliance with IEEE Standard 802.11n-2009, particularly mobile phones and tablets. Lenovo and LGE join Amazon, ARRIS, Belkin, Melco Holdings (Buffalo Americas), NETGEAR, and Roku as defendants in the campaign. The plaintiffs allege that offers to license the patents-in-suit (among others) at a RAND (reasonable and non-discriminatory) rate were refused, justifying their current request to “the maximum reasonable royalty damages rate” for infringement.

Hera Wireless S.A. and Sisvel UK Limited have launched a new litigation campaign, filing six lawsuits, one each against Amazon (1:17-cv-00947), ARRIS (1:17-cv-00948), Belkin (1:17-cv-00949), Melco Holdings (Buffalo Americas) (1:17-cv-00950), NETGEAR (1:17-cv-00951), and Roku (1:17-cv-00952). The complaints assert three patents (7,962,103; 8,412,115; 8,934,851) from a family of five, generally related to wireless communications, with the NPEs accusing the defendants of infringement through the manufacture and/or sale of devices that operate in compliance with IEEE Standard 802.11n-2009. Exemplar accused products are identified in the complaints: the Echo BT Speaker for Amazon; devices used to stream media content for Roku; and certain Wi-Fi cable modems, routers, or access points for the remaining companies.

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.

RPX took notice, among the USPTO assignment records made available during the latter part of February, of the transfer of patents from operating companies Dongbu, Eastman Kodak, Honeywell, IBM, and Koninklijke Philips to various NPEs. One of those NPEs (Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited) has already launched a campaign asserting the patents that it received (from IBM). RPX also saw during this time the recordation of the assignment of one two-way radio patent from one litigating NPE to another (the second, an affiliate of IP Edge LLC) and the assignment of two database management patents from a Daniel F. Perez entity that asserted them in litigation back to the Georgia patent monetization firm from which that NPE acquired them.

This past week saw the number of newly formed Texas NPEs managed by Michigan attorney Erik Stamell to launch litigation double, from two to four. First, Post Media Systems LLC asserted three patents (7,069,310; 7,472,175; 8,725,832) in new cases against iHeartMedia (2:16-cv-00649) and Spotify (2:16-cv-00650). Those patents-in-suit generally relate to managing media files for playback over a computer network, with the defendants accused of infringement through provision of their music and radio online services and related apps. Next, Optical Measurement Systems, LLC accused Broadcom (Avago) (1:16-cv-0468) and Marvell (1:16-cv-00469) of infringing a single patent (8,838,822), generally related to translating packet-based data into a serial data stream, through the sale of the defendants’ optical transceivers. Also this week, Digital Audio Encoding Systems, LLC added seven defendants to a campaign that it kicked off one month ago by filing a case against Apple. With nearly 20 new NPEs formed in Texas since August 2015, more Stamell-managed litigation campaigns seem destined to follow in 2016.

Digital Audio Encoding Systems, LLC (DAES) has filed a case asserting a single patent (7,490,037) against Apple (1:16-cv-00389). The ‘037 patent generally relates to encoding digital signals, and the NPE’s complaint targets Apple’s HTTP Live Streaming Server. DAES is one of 15 NPEs to have been formed in Texas between August 2015 and May 2016 with the same manager and agent, two of which have already filed suit and several others of which have recorded assignments of patent assets with the USPTO.

Audio MPEG, Inc., the US subsidiary of international patent licensing company Sisvel International S.A., has filed yet another lawsuit in its long-running MPEG audio compression campaign. The case (1:15-cv-1674), filed against Dell, is the second that Audio MPEG has initiated this year. The first case (2:15-cv-00073), filed against HP, has been stayed pending resolution of three petitions for inter partes review (IPR) of the three patents at issue in both suits (5,323,396; 5,777,992; 5,539,829). The NPE did not serve its February 2015 complaint against HP until June; HP filed its petitions for IPR within a week of service (IPR2015-01505, IPR2015-01506, IPR2015-01507). An institution decision is due by statute at the end of January.