Wi-LAN Inc. et al v. Huizhou TCL Mobile Communication Co. Ltd. et al

A Southern District of California jury has returned a $85.2M damages award against Apple in its ongoing litigation with Quarterhill Inc. subsidiary Wi-LAN Inc. (WiLAN). The verdict comes just over a year after District Judge Dana M. Sabraw threw out a $145.1M award in that same case after a mid-2018 trial. Judge Sabraw ruled in early January 2019 that WiLAN had failed to properly apportion the infringing features of the iPhones at issue and that the NPE had presented the first jury with a damages case that lacked a sufficient factual basis. WiLAN’s second, revamped damages case was then narrowed by an order excluding key expert testimony that the court issued about four months before the retrial, which ultimately saw the jury award a per-unit royalty of $0.45 multiplied by 189.4M infringing devices.

Brevet Capital, a private equity firm based in New York, issued a press release on February 11 announcing that it has purchased multiple entities affiliated with Leslie Ware’s PanOptis Holdings, LLC, including litigating NPEs Optis Cellular Technology LLC; Optis Wireless Technology, LLC; and Unwired Planet, LLC. While terms of the deal remain confidential, a recent disclosure in a PanOptis suit against Huawei—the NPE’s last litigation filed since joining the Marconi Group in March 2017—provides details about which entities are now owned by Brevet.

Quarterhill Inc. (as Wi-LAN Inc.; Wi-LAN USA, Inc.; and Wi-LAN Labs, Inc., collectively WiLAN) has filed a second case (1:19-cv-00941) against Motorola Mobility LLC (with Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc.), asserting the same four networking patents at issue in the NPE’s 2017 case (3:17-cv-00365) against Motorola and its parent company, Lenovo. WiLAN’s new complaint targets some of the same products accused in that first case—which was dismissed without prejudice early last year—including certain models of Motorola’s Moto and DROID smartphones.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) saw activity in AIA reviews against a variety of familiar plaintiffs in September, including validity challenges brought in campaigns targeting wireless communications technology and mobile devices. Among the NPEs hit with petitions for inter partes review (IPR) in September were Intellectual Ventures LLC, which continues to pursue its existing litigation as it divests other parts of its portfolio; and entities controlled by Fortress Investment Group LLC and Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited, both of which have kept up a barrage of new litigation asserting former Pendrell Corporation patents. Also in September, the PTAB instituted trial in IPRs against Quarterhill Inc. and an NPE related to PanOptis Equity Holdings LLC, and issued final decisions against private plaintiffs including General Patent Corporation.