Guada Technologies LLC v. Teespring, Inc.

Guada Technologies LLC (Guada Tech), an apparent affiliate of IP Edge LLC, has added cases against retailers Pier 1 Imports (1:19-cv-01016), Sally Beauty Supply (1:19-cv-01017), and Staples (1:19-cv-01018) to its sole litigation campaign, over a single information processing patent. The new suits join active 2019 cases filed against fellow retailers Big 5, BSN Sports, Floor and Décor Outlets of America, Hibbett Sporting Goods, HSN, and UncommonGoods; suits brought earlier this year against BPS Direct and Williams-Sonoma have already joined the many cases in this campaign that have been dismissed.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) continued to see the filing of petitions for inter partes review (IPR) against publicly traded NPEs in March 2017, including Acacia Research Corporation; Finjan Holdings, Inc.; Pendrell Corporation; TiVo Corporation (formerly known as Rovi Corporation); and Wi-LAN Inc. (WiLAN). A variety of prolific, privately held NPEs were also targeted for IPR throughout March, including Blackbird Tech LLC, General Patent Corporation, IP Edge LLC, Realtime Data LLC, and Papst Licensing GmbH & Company Kg, along with several inventors and inventor-controlled NPEs and an assortment of other plaintiffs.

Guada Technologies LLC (Guada Tech), an NPE apparently affiliated with IP Edge LLC, has started its first litigation campaign, asserting a single information processing patent (7,231,379) in a wave of lawsuits against 7Digital, Batanga, Defy Media, eMusic, iHeartMedia, Major League Baseball, Netflix, Pandora, Reliance Majestic Holdings, Rhapsody, Slacker, Smule, and Spotify. The defendants are each accused of infringement through the provision of keyword search features that allow users to locate music or video content across multiple categories (e.g., album and artist for music and genre and director for movies and TV).