Qualcomm Incorporated v. Parkervision, Inc.

ParkerVision, Inc. has filed a second suit against LG Electronics (LGE) (6:21-cv-00520), this one in the Western District of Texas targeting with ten wireless networking patents the incorporation of certain MediaTek or Realtek Wi-Fi chips in its various wireless modules and TVs. A 2017 case against LGE—targeting products containing Qualcomm chips—remains stayed in the District of New Jersey to await the outcome of the litigation at the core of this campaign: a suit filed directly against Qualcomm in the Middle District of Florida, where the presiding judge, in receipt of a flurry of motions for summary judgment and motions challenging expert opinions, has just postponed trial beyond July.

ParkerVision, Inc. has continued the 2020 expansion of its long-running wireless communications campaign, this past week adding Western District of Texas suits against Melco Holdings (Buffalo) (6:20-cv-01009) and ZyXEL Communications (6:20-cv-01010). The publicly traded NPE targets the provision of Wi-Fi routers incorporating wireless networking modules with certain chips from MediaTek and Realtek. These latest cases follow earlier 2020 suits filed separately against Hisense, Intel, and TCL Technology, all as ParkerVision continues litigating a 2014 case in the Middle District of Florida against Qualcomm and its customer HTC, in light of which additional suits, against Apple and LG Electronics (LGE) have been stayed.

Backed by litigation funder Brickell Key and undeterred by a litigation storm in multiple districts, publicly traded ParkerVision, Inc. has sued Hisense (6:20-cv-00870) in the Western District of Texas over the provision of Sharp-branded TVs, with the incorporation of certain Wi-Fi chips provided by MediaTek and Realtek at issue. Core in this campaign is a 2014 case, active in the Middle District of Florida before Judge Paul G. Byron, against Qualcomm and its customer HTC, in light of which suits against Apple (also in the Middle District of Florida) and LG Electronics (LGE) (in the District of New Jersey) have been stayed. It does not stop there, however; 2020 cases against Intel (two in the Western District of Texas) and TCL (one in the Central District of California) continue, albeit in early stages.

2020 has seen the first new cases filed by ParkerVision, Inc. in years, the publicly traded NPE suing Intel (6:20-cv-00108) in the Western District of Texas in early February and TCL (TCL Technology, TTE Technology) (5:20-cv-01030) in the Central District of California in mid-May. Nearly all of the asserted patents belong to the plaintiff’s 100-plus member family, the bulk of which is generally related to “down-converting” electromagnetic signals based on “energy sampling” rather than voltage sampling. Qualcomm has been in suit against ParkerVision over the provision of its baseband processors since 2011, with an Apple case stayed to await the outcome of that litigation, which resumed after a Florida judge set aside a $175M verdict in ParkerVision’s favor—a decision upheld on appeal to the Federal Circuit. The NPE has just dismissed one patent from its February case against Intel in favor of refiling a standalone suit in the same venue (6:20-cv-00562), with ParkerVision targeting Intel cellular modems incorporated into certain iPhone models and the litigation against TCL targeting Wi-Fi modules and chips and television models incorporating them.

Even as related European litigation stalls, the sole litigation campaign of ParkerVision, Inc. has come back to life in US district courts with the recent withdrawal of the NPE’s complaint in an action filed before the International Trade Commission (ITC) in December 2015. The defendants in the ITC investigation were Qualcomm and three smartphone and tablet makers, Apple, LG Electronics (LGE), and Samsung. ParkerVision filed a concurrent suit in the Middle District of Florida asserting the same four patents (6,879,817; 7,929,528; 8,571,135; 9,118,638) against the same four defendants. The case was stayed pending conclusion of ITC proceedings, which occurred on April 28, and the district court has since reopened the case before it, absent Samsung, which settled out. ParkerVision has now dismissed, without prejudice, its claims in that case against LGE and filed a standalone case against LGE in New Jersey (2:17-cv-05359), where that company is based, in light of the US Supreme Court’s recent TC Heartland decision on patent venue. The suit again asserts the same four patents, targeting radio frequency transmitters and transceivers that operate in smartphones and tablets in conjunction with Qualcomm baseband processors.

This week, ParkerVision, Inc. lodged complaints against Apple, LG Electronics, Samsung, and Qualcomm with the International Trade Commission (ITC) and with a Florida district court (3:15-cv-01477) over a group of semiconductor patents. The NPE accuses Qualcomm of infringing the patents-in-suit (6,879,817; 7,929,638; 8,571,135; 9,118,528) through radio frequency (RF) receivers, transceivers, and other semiconductors that enable wireless features, accusing the other defendants of infringement through the manufacture and sale of smartphones and tablets that implement Qualcomm’s accused chips. In ParkerVision’s complaint filed in the Middle District of Florida on December 14, the NPE described allegations of Qualcomm’s infringement of the ‘638 patent as “forthcoming”. The next day, Qualcomm filed an action (3:15-cv-02809) in the Southern District of California seeking a declaratory judgment of non-infringement of the patent.