TMI Solutions LLC v. Etsy, Inc.

TMI Solutions LLC, an affiliate of Strategic Intellectual Solutions, LLC (SIS), has targeted a second group of retailers in its cookies campaign, after the two patents-in-suit—generally related to client-server communications—survived an Alice challenge in the first round. The NPE has tagged Barnes & Noble (1:19-cv-01229), CVS (1:19-cv-01230), Etsy (1:19-cv-01231), H&M (1:19-cv-01232), Hobby Lobby (1:19-cv-01233), Home Depot (1:19-cv-01234), Mary Kay (1:19-cv-01235), and OfficeMax (1:19-cv-01236) in the District of Delaware, where last September, District Judge Leonard P. Stark ruled, citing Berkheimer, that while the asserted patents’ claims are directed to an abstract idea (“exchanging information for the purpose of identification”), the first-round defendants failed to persuade the court, at least at the Rule 12 stage, that the claim limitations are “well-understood, routine, and conventional computer technology at the time of the invention”.