MD Security Solutions LLC v. CenturyTel Security Systems, Inc.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) saw petitions for AIA review filed against a variety of prolific litigants in June 2017, including General Patent Corporation, Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV), Quarterhill Inc. (f/k/a Wi-LAN Inc.), Realtime Data LLC, Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited, and Xperi Corporation (f/k/a Tessera Holding Corporation). Also in June, the PTAB instituted trial for petitions brought against patents asserted in a variety of sprawling campaigns, including some waged by Acacia Research Corporation, IV, Papst Licensing, Quarterhill, and VirnetX Inc. The Board further issued final decisions throughout June in AIA reviews against patents involved in several notable campaigns, including some waged by Document Security Systems, Inc., Elm 3DS Innovations LLC, Empire IP LLC, and Quarterhill.

Empire IP LLC subsidiary MD Security Solutions LLC has added two new defendants to its security alarm system campaign, suing CenturyLink (6:15-cv-01967) and Protection 1 (6:15-cv-01968) in the Middle District of Florida alleging infringement of a single patent (7,864,983). These suits are the first filed since the campaign began in May 2015. The ‘983 patent generally relates to a security alarm system, for protecting a structure, that includes motion detectors connected to cameras. As alleged in the two complaints, the accused products are home security systems that use motion sensors and cameras and allow users to view images from the cameras on separate screens.