Sisvel International S.A. v. TDS Telecommunications LLC et al

Sisvel International S.A. (d/b/a Sisvel Group) has added four new cases to its litigation campaign, begun in August 2017, over a portfolio of former Panasonic patents allegedly essential to the practice of the ITU G.994.1 standard related to DSL technology. These latest complaints accuse Consolidated Communications (1:19-cv-00331), GTT Communications (1:19-cv-00328), SONIC.NET (1:19-cv-00330), and TDS Communications (1:19-cv-00329) of infringing the same nine patents asserted in earlier suits against CenturyLink, Frontier Communications, and Verizon, all through the through the provision of “DSL technology, equipment and services” that comply with that standard. The August 2017 cases against CenturyLink and Frontier have been dismissed, while Verizon, sued in November 2018, has just filed its answer to Sisvel’s complaint.

In August 2017, Sisvel International S.A. (d/b/a Sisvel Group) launched a litigation campaign over a portfolio of former Panasonic patents allegedly essential to the practice of the ITU G.994.1 standard related to DSL technology, asserting nine of them first against CenturyLink and then Frontier Communications. At the end of this past September, the CenturyLink case ended in a dismissal with prejudice after multiple stays to permit the parties to finalize an agreement resolving their disputes, and a similar set of stays has been entered in the case against Frontier, suggesting that an end to that case is imminent. Against this backdrop, Sisvel has filed a new suit, against Verizon (1:18-cv-01742), asserting the same nine patents and accusing Verizon of infringement through the provision of “DSL technology, equipment and services” that comply with the same standard.