Ancora Technologies, Inc. v. Apple Inc. DC

At the start of 2021, Ancora Technologies Inc. had active cases across multiple districts against six defendants: HTC, Lenovo (Motorola Mobility), LG Electronics (LGE), Samsung, Sony, and TCL (TCT Mobile). As litigation against four of those defendants has reached, or nears, an end, Ancora has filed new cases, hitting Alphabet (Google) (6:21-cv-00735), Nintendo (6:21-cv-00738), Roku (6:21-cv-00737), and VIZIO (6:21-cv-00739) over the same patent, which generally relates to preventing unauthorized use of software on a computer. Throughout this campaign, begun in 2008, Ancora has targeted the provision of “over-the-air (‘OTA’) software update” features on myriad mobile devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets).

With its new cases, filed separately last week against Lenovo (Motorola Mobility) (1:19-cv-01712) and Sony (1:19-cv-01703) in the District of Delaware, Ancora Technologies Inc. is now actively waging its sole litigation campaign in four districts. A favorable Federal Circuit opinion revived a case over the sole patent-in-campaign—generally related to preventing unauthorized use of software on a computer—against HTC in the Western District of Washington, while June 2019 cases against LG Electronics and Samsung are getting underway in the Western District of Texas and an August 2019 suit against TCL is in the earliest stages in the Eastern District of that state. Throughout its operative complaints, Ancora targets the provision of myriad mobile devices (e.g., smartphones and tablets), calling out “over-the-air software update” features on such devices.

Ancora Technologies Inc. has revived litigation of a single patent—generally related to preventing the unauthorized use of software on a computer—that has twice been the subject of an appeal before the Federal Circuit. Ancora began litigating that patent in 2008 in a case filed against Dell, HP, and Toshiba, in which Microsoft intervened. Subsequent cases filed against Apple and HTC resulted in Federal Circuit appeals, both ending in Ancora’s favor, the second of which reversed, in a November 2018 opinion, a district court Alice invalidation. Ancora now accuses LG Electronics (6:19-cv-00384) and Samsung (6:19-cv-00385), in the Western District of Texas, of infringement through the provision of a long list of mobile devices (e.g., smartphones and tablets), with the complaint calling out “over-the-air software update” features on such devices.

Nearly five years after it first asserted the exact same patent against Apple, Ancora Technologies, Inc. has filed another suit (3:15-cv-03659) against the company, again asserting only the 6,411,941 patent. The ‘941 patent relates to using computer data storage to hold license records that can be used to verify proper use of related software. Apple products that use iOS6 and later operating systems, as well as the Apple Watch OS, are accused of infringement.