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An Update on Patent Litigation, the Patent Marketplace, and New Cases
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Monday, June 24, 2024
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Patent Litigation Feature
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In late April, the USPTO released a long-awaited Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) addressing discretionary denials before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that included just a subset of the changes from a far more sweeping—and far more controversial—proposal released in April 2023. Public comments submitted in response to the newer, more limited package by the June 18 deadline reflected feedback from a broad set of stakeholders, including licensors, frequent defendants, industry groups, and even the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
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Patent Watch
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By now this general pattern has become familiar: the formation of an LLC in a state where a monetization outfit would like to file suit, the acquisition from an operating company of a patent portfolio over which the outfit would like to sue, the procurement of financial backing for the litigation, and ultimately, one or more complaints filed in US district court in that state over that portfolio with that funding. While some monetization teams are more open about such efforts, others seek to obscure their own identities as well as the identity of their funder. A recent assignment, and its parallels to others, raises questions about whether an unnamed team in the latter camp has been operating over the past year or so.
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Earlier this month, NovaCloud Licensing LLC announced the launch of “a new licensing effort to provide more accessibility to patented technologies that are fundamental to driving innovations across the cloud computing and datacenter sectors”. The firm indicated in its press release that it has acquired “a foundational patent portfolio of cloud-based technologies” from Ericsson, which NovaCloud’s public website suggests has global reach, including 40 patent families and more than 40 US patents. Joe Chernesky and Bill Goldman, both behind VideoLabs, Inc., lead the NovaCloud team.
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New Patent Litigation
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Lab Technology LLC has added separate Western District of Texas cases against Alphabet (Google) (6:24-cv-00334), Cisco (6:24-cv-00338), Intel (6:24-cv-00332), LG Electronics (LGE), (6:24-cv-00336), Lyft (6:24-cv-00333), Microsoft (6:24-cv-00331), NVIDIA (6:24-cv-00337), and Qualcomm (6:24-cv-00335) to the litigation campaign first begun early last month with Eastern District of Texas suits filed against Samsung and Verizon and then expanded earlier this month with separate suits, also filed in the Eastern District of Texas, against Amazon, Anritsu, AT&T, Bose, Ericsson, Stryker, and Quectel Wireless Solutions. The plaintiff has also filed a District of Colorado case against Zoom Communications Video (1:24-cv-01711), asserting a patent already in suit against AT&T. Currently available USPTO records have yet to reflect the assignment of any of Lab Technology’s six patents-in-suit away from TP Lab, Inc.
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Secure Matrix LLC has launched its first litigation, suing A Holdings (Line) (2:24-cv-00456), Bank of America (2:24-cv-00455), Binance (2:24-cv-00457), IBM (2:24-cv-00458), Rakuten (2:24-cv-00460), and Sony (2:24-cv-00459) in the Eastern District of Texas, as well as Microsoft (6:24-cv-00328) and Zoho (6:24-cv-00327) in the Western District of Texas. Asserting a single user authentication patent, the plaintiff targets the provision of websites, apps, and/or other software that allow users to authenticate by scanning a QR code with a mobile device.
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Never-Search, Inc. has filed its first litigation, suing Alphabet (Google) (5:24-cv-03733) over the provision of Google Maps, targeting features related to finding and displaying information about points of interest. The eight patents now in suit are generally related to storing and updating “points of interest” (along with related information) and displaying those “points of interest” on a map. The plaintiff has indicated in a bare corporate disclosure that it has no parent and no publicly held corporation owns ten percent or more of its stock, but it has yet to file a certificate of interested parties, as required by Northern District of California Local Rules.
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Describing itself as “an inventor-owned limited liability company”, Keyless Licensing LLC has sued Samsung (2:24-cv-00464) over the provision of the Galaxy S23 smartphone. At issue in the new Eastern District of Texas complaint are various physical design features and touchscreen interface functionality related to the onscreen keyboard and swipe gestures. Asserted are three patents for which Benjamin Firooz Ghassabian is the sole named inventor.
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In a new Northern District of California complaint, Delaware plaintiff RAZDOG HOLDINGS LLC accuses Amazon (Twitch Interactive) (5:24-cv-03638) of infringing two patents generally related to providing a server-based “slide tool” for viewing content from multiple sources, and also a remote “tool box” for writing code to control the slide tool and gather analytics data from it. Targeted is the Twitch website’s support of video “carousels” allowing users to horizontally scroll between streamed videos, along with features including video tags, content selection algorithms, ad insertion, chat, analytics, and user bans.
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AutoNavigare LLC has filed suit against two subsidiaries of Toyota (2:24-cv-00439) in the Eastern District of Texas over the provision of certain Toyota- and Lexus-branded vehicles with navigation systems, targeting various navigation features and the support for Apple CarPlay. In early 2023, Forvia (Faurecia Clarion Electronics) moved 17 US patents, in separate April and May assignments, to AutoNavigare, which has now filed suit over five of those received assets.
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A week after suing HP in the Western District of Texas, Eireog Innovations Limited, an Atlantic IP Services Limited plaintiff, has filed an Eastern District of Texas complaint accusing Acer (2:24-cv-00449) of infringing the same three patents. As has been the case since this campaign began in April, Eireog targets the provision of various computing products, including certain categories of laptops and desktops, that incorporate certain Intel and/or AMD CPUs.
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AI-CORE TECHNOLOGIES, LLC, an Ascend Innovation Management, LLC plaintiff, has asserted seven former Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) patents in an Eastern District of Texas complaint against Keyence (2:24-cv-00438). Targeted is the provision of vision systems and related products used for code reading, including the “(1) Keyence CV-X400 Series Intuitive Vision System; (2) Keyence SR-1000 series Autofocus 1D and 2D Code Reader; (3) Keyence SR-1000 Series Autofocus Reader & AutoID Network Navigator; (4) Keyence AutoID Network Navigator Software”.
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In Case You Missed It
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Earlier this month, District of Delaware Judge Gregory B. Williams denied a motion from BMW to intervene in a case filed by Arigna Technology Limited, a plaintiff operating under the umbrella of Dublin-based monetization firm Atlantic IP Services Limited, against Longford Capital Fund III, LP (“LCF”), an entity controlled by Chicago-based litigation finance firm Longford Capital. The court did so without prejudice, pointing to its decision the day before to stay the case to allow an arbitrator to decide whether Arigna’s claims against Longford should be subjected to arbitration. Meanwhile, District of DC Judge Rudolph Contreras has granted Susman Godfrey L.L.P.’s motion to withdraw from its representation of Arigna in a declaratory judgment action filed by BMW against it there.
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