Godo Kaisha IP Bridge 1 v. OmniVision Technologies, Inc. DC

On November 8, a jury in the District of Delaware handed down a verdict in favor of Japanese monetization firm IP Bridge, Inc., finding that certain TCL smartphones, sold under the Alcatel OneTouch brand, have infringed two patents developed by Panasonic. IP Bridge (as Godo Kaisha IP Bridge 1) sued TCL in July 2015, opening up its first of three litigation campaigns in the US—each currently involving between one and 25 patents originating with Panasonic (with one campaign also asserting patents developed by NEC). Active defendants in IP Bridge’s US campaigns include Intel, OmniVision, Qualcomm, and Xilinx.

Japanese patent monetization firm IP Bridge, Inc. has filed a second case against OmniVision (1:16-cv-00975) in Delaware. It has asserted, through its subsidiary Godo Kaisha IP Bridge 1 (IP Bridge 1), another imaging patent (7,164,113) received from Panasonic in January 2014. Omnivision’s Purecel backside-illuminated imager sensor products are accused of infringement in this case, as they were in the earlier action (1:16-cv-00290). That case was filed in April 2016 and involves nine other former Panasonic patents. This new case comes as the parties are currently briefing a motion to transfer the older one from Delaware to the Northern District of California.