Collabo Innovations, Inc.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) saw activity in August 2018 involving a variety of frequent litigants. This included petitions for inter partes review (IPR) filed against two NPEs controlled by Fortress Investment Group LLC, INVT SPE LLC and Uniloc 2017 LLC, the latter of which has in recent months cofiled a barrage of lawsuits with subsidiaries of Australian NPE Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited (Uniloc). The PTAB also instituted trial in August for IPRs against Uniloc 2017 and some of its campaign coplaintiffs, and in an IPR against an NPE controlled by patent attorney Brian Yates, whose US litigation has waned as he pursues a new patent licensing initiative through his company iPEL, Inc. Finally, the PTAB issued final decisions in August for IPRs against Uniloc, Empire IP LLC, and Quarterhill Inc.

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.

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.

Collision Avoidance Technologies Inc., a subsidiary of Wi-LAN Inc. (WiLAN), has filed suit against Toyota (6:16-cv-00971), asserting a single patent (6,268,803) generally related to a system that uses multiple sensors to detect the distance and location of objects near a vehicle. The company is alleged to infringe through various Toyota and Lexus cars, sport utility vehicles (SUVs), minivans, and pickup trucks that offer Toyota’s “front and rear parking assist” and “intuitive parking assist” features.

In the second half of March 2016, RPX saw twelve patent transfers to known NPEs recorded with the USPTO. Several of those transactions involved patents that have already been asserted in litigation against operating companies.

Collabo Innovations, Inc. (a subsidiary of Wi-LAN Inc.) has added another case to the older of its two litigation campaigns. It filed a new complaint suit against OmniVision Technologies (1:16-cv-00197) in the District of Delaware, asserting five patents (7,411,180; 8,592,880; 7,944,493; 7,728,895; 8,004,026) generally related to solid-state imaging devices. At issue in the campaign are CMOS image sensors in cameras and mobile communications devices.

Throughout November 2015, an inordinate number of cases were filed by NPEs apparently motivated to get to court before December 1 to avoid changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure that took effect on that date. Among those filing November cases were several subsidiaries of publicly traded patent assertion entities (PAEs), including Collabo Innovations, Inc. (a subsidiary of Wi-Lan Inc.); Iron Gate Security, Inc. (a subsidiary of Vringo, Inc.), and Endeavor MeshTech, Inc. (a subsidiary of Endeavor IP, Inc.).

WiLAN’s Collabo Innovations, Inc. continues to slowly grow its litigation campaign with a suit against Toshiba (1:15-cv-00608). The campaign, begun in August 2014, asserts a group of five patents, three of which are asserted in this suit (6,166,405; 7,471,322; 7,696,543). The patents in the campaign all relate to solid-state imaging devices used in CMOS circuits. At issue in this suit are cameras and mobile communications devices made by Toshiba and sold by other companies that are not named defendants.

ON Semiconductor is the first company targeted by WiLAN subsidiary Collabo Innovations, LLC, an entity created at the end of 2013. Semiconductor devices made by ON Semi and its subsidiary Aptina, particularly CMOS image sensor products, are accused of infringing the patents asserted (5976907; 6166405; 7696543). The three patents-in-suit are from a portfolio that WiLAN acquired from Panasonic in December 2013, and the patents were assigned directly to Collabo. All three relate to solid-state imaging devices used in CMOS circuits.