Memory Technologies, LLC v. SanDisk LLC et al

Memory Technologies LLC (MTL), a subsidiary of Pendrell Corporation, has filed suit against Kingston Technology (8:18-cv-00171), asserting eight patents from a larger portfolio acquired from Nokia early in 2013. MTL alleges that “as many as 82 of its patents belong to families with patents essential to various memory and electronic storage standards”, including the JEDEC eMMC standard and Secure Digital Association Physical Layer Specification (“SD Standard”). The complaint accuses Kingston of infringement through the manufacture and sale of certain SD cards and eMMC memory products, MTL further pleading that the defendant has been on notice of alleged infringement of the asserted patents since October 2013 but has not responded to repeated offers of a license under reasonable and non-discriminatory (RAND) terms. The new case follows a 2017 that saw Pendrell lose significant Federal Circuit appeals in its long-running campaign to enforce its digital rights management (DRM) portfolio, take steps to delist its securities from the NASDAQ exchange, and reportedly divest itself of a major patent portfolio.

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.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) continued to see the filing of petitions for inter partes review (IPR) against publicly traded NPEs in March 2017, including Acacia Research Corporation; Finjan Holdings, Inc.; Pendrell Corporation; TiVo Corporation (formerly known as Rovi Corporation); and Wi-LAN Inc. (WiLAN). A variety of prolific, privately held NPEs were also targeted for IPR throughout March, including Blackbird Tech LLC, General Patent Corporation, IP Edge LLC, Realtime Data LLC, and Papst Licensing GmbH & Company Kg, along with several inventors and inventor-controlled NPEs and an assortment of other plaintiffs.

Network-1 Technologies, Inc. has disclosed a 74.5-percent increase in revenue for 2016 due to license agreements signed throughout the fiscal year, also announcing that its net income increased by five times compared to 2015. Meanwhile, Pendrell Corporation reported its first year of operating income in 2016 as it prepares to de-list from Nasdaq, part of the NPE’s ongoing efforts to shift away from patent assertion in the wake of adverse jury verdicts in its ContentGuard DRM campaign.

Memory Technologies LLC (MTL), a subsidiary of publicly traded patent investment company Pendrell Corporation, has filed a single lawsuit against Western Digital and its recently acquired SanDisk subsidiary (8:16-cv-02163). The complaint asserts eight patents (8,307,180; 9,063,850; 7,739,487; 7,565, 469; 7,827,370; 7,275,186; RE45,486; RE45,542) from a larger portfolio acquired from Nokia early in 2013. MTL alleges that “as many as 81 of its patents belong to families with patents essential to various memory and electronic storage standards”, including the JEDEC eMMC standard and Secure Digital Association Physical Layer Specification (“SD Standard”). MTL accuses various memory products, including SanDisk SD cards, microSD cards, SanDisk eMMCs (“embedded multimedia cards”), and other products that contain SanDisk eMMCs. MTL also filed an ITC action against SanDisk and Western Digital (337-TA-1034) on the same day that it launched the district court cases, asserting the ‘180, ‘850, ‘186, ‘486, and ‘542 patents against the same types of memory product.