Ironworks Patents LLC v. Samsung Electronics Co., LTD. et al CAFC

In the wake of the Federal Circuit’s remand back to the Northern District of California a case that Ironworks Patents LLC brought against Samsung years ago, the NPE has filed suit against Lenovo (Motorola Mobility) (1:20-cv-01357) in the Northern District of Illinois. The three asserted patents generally relate to alerts (e.g., volume reduction, custom vibration), claims of each targeted at various features of Motorola Mobility smartphones and each having frequently appeared in the Ironworks campaign, begun back in March 2010. In a February 21, 2020 decision, the Federal Circuit corrected two claim constructions by District Judge Haywood S. Gilliam Jr., remanding for further proceedings given that those constructions formed the basis of stipulated final judgments before the district court.

Ironworks Patents LLC has added a Northern District of Texas lawsuit against ZTE (3:19-cv-00513) to the long-running mobile devices campaign, begun in March 2010, that Ironworks took over from MobileMedia Ideas LLC in mid-2017. The NPE asserts a set of five familiar patents, generally related to alerts, including tactile alerts, on a “mobile station”, that includes the four patents asserted in a January case filed against ASUSTek in the Eastern District of Texas. These new suits follow dismissals in prior litigation against Apple, BLU Products, and TCL Communication, as well as an appeal to the Federal Circuit from a stipulated final judgment entered in a Northern District of California case filed against Samsung. Ironworks has targeted features on smartphones and tablets for silencing “alert sounds” announcing, e.g., the receipt of a call, alleging that it began communications with ZTE about the portfolio now asserted in litigation starting in June 2010.

Last month, Ironworks Patents LLC filed a new lawsuit against ASUSTek (2:19-cv-00016) in the Eastern District of Texas, asserting a familiar set of patents generally related to alerts, including tactile alerts, on a “mobile station”. That case followed on the heels of a settlement in the most recent previous case, filed against BLU Products in the Southern District of Florida; a dismissal in a set of district court and appellate actions against Apple; a settlement with TCL Communication; and an appeal from final judgment stemming from an unfavorable claim construction order in a Northern District of California case filed against Samsung. Ironworks has targeted features on smartphones and tablets for silencing “alert sounds” announcing, e.g., the receipt of a call, identifying in this most recent complaint ASUSTek’s ZenFone, PadFone, Memo Pad, VivoTab, ZenPad, and ROG phone devices.

In the wake of the Northern District of California’s recent denial of a related Alice motion brought by Apple, Ironworks Patents LLC has filed suit against BLU Products (1:18-cv-22478) in the Southern District of Florida. The new complaint asserts one of the patents that survived in the Northern District, as well as a later-issuing relative, both generally related to tactile alerts on a “mobile station”. Smartphones have been at issue throughout this campaign, with Ironworks accusing BLU Products of infringement through the manufacture and sale of “at least the Advance, Dash, Energy, Grand, Life, Neo, Pure, R, S, Studio, and Vivo Series smartphones”.

Ironworks Patents LLC has filed suit against TCL Communication (TCT Mobile) (2:18-cv-02472) over three patents forming a subset of the five asserted in separate cases filed against LG Electronics (LGE) and Huawei last summer. The patents generally relate to the use of tactile alerts, audible alerts, and predictive text completion, with the accused products comprising various smartphones, including a range of Alcatel Idol models, Alcatel A30 and A50, the Alcatel Go Flip and Pop4S, and the BlackBerry KEYone. In January, the Ironworks case against LGE was dismissed with prejudice after earlier documents filed with the court suggest that the parties settled; a stay has been entered in the Huawei suit to facilitate settlement.

As Ironworks Patents LLC and Apple take appeals to the Federal Circuit from a final judgment entered after a Delaware jury verdict of infringement of a single patent, the NPE has filed another case against Apple (1:17-cv-01399), asserting the same patent as well as two others. Ironworks pleads that it filed the complaint “in an abundance of caution, for the purpose of preserving its rights to seek damages on [] subsequent models of the iPhone”, directly accusing the iPhone 4s, 5x, 5c, 6 (Plus), 6s (Plus), SE, 7 (Plus), 8 (Plus), and X of infringing at least one of the three patents asserted in the new complaint.

Ironworks Patents LLC has added a new case against Huawei (2:17-cv-00554) to the campaign that it recently took over from MobileMedia Ideas LLC. Ironworks asserts the same five mobile device patents (5,915,239; 6,002,390; 6,006,114; 9,521,269; RE39,231) that it asserted against LG Electronics (LGE) last month, accusing Huawei of infringement through inclusion of various features (i.e., alerts and ignore options for incoming calls, voice controls, and predictive text completion) on its smartphones and tablets. With this new complaint, filed in the Eastern District of Texas, the NPE will have open cases in three district courts—the LGE case in the Southern District of California and a case against Samsung proceeding in the Northern District of California—as well as an active appeal before the Federal Circuit (17-2341), as Ironworks and Apple have filed notices of appeals from a judgment entered by the District of Delaware.