ROTHSCHILD STORAGE RETRIEVAL INNOVATIONS, LLC v. Apple Inc.

Rothschild Patent Imaging LLC (RPI) has added a second October case to the litigation campaign that named inventor and frequent plaintiff Leigh M. Rothschild began back in January 2016. The campaign was initiated through a separate Rothschild entity, Rothschild Storage Retrieval Innovations, LLC, before being passed off to a plaintiff called Texas Patent Imaging LLC, which handed the baton to RPI in August 2016. The number of defendants collectively sued by these three plaintiffs now approaches 50. The newest complaints assert three image sharing patents against Slomin’s (2:17-cv-05915) and Vivint (2:17-cv-01139), with infringement allegations focused on home security and monitoring systems.

Inventor Leigh M. Rothschild has continued his streak of conceding to venue challenges in Texas, less than a year after largely consolidating his litigation in that state. On July 18 and 24, dockets were opened in the Central District of California and Delaware, respectively, for the cases against ShopStyle (1:17-cv-00978) and Clique Media (2:17-cv-05463) brought by the Rothschild-controlled Product Association Technologies, LLC after the defendants filed motions to dismiss due to improper venue in the Eastern District of Texas cases against them (2:17-cv-00270, 2:17-cv-00265). Product Association also dismissed cases against IAC Search & Media (2:17-cv-00269) and Verizon (Altaba (f/k/a Yahoo), Polyvore, Yahoo Holding) (2:17-cv-00272, 2:17-cv-00268) with prejudice on July 20 after the defendants filed motions to dismiss for improper venue or, in the alternative, to dismiss due to the alleged invalidity of the asserted patent (6,154,738) under Alice. Each of those virtually identical motions was filed on June 26 and alleged that the ‘738 patent is impermissibly directed to the abstract idea of “locating and sending product information in response to a request”.

Rothschild Patent Imaging LLC (RPI) filed eight new suits this week, accusing Badoo Trading Limited (d/b/a Badoo Software Ltd.), Foursquare, Grindr, MeetMe, Photobucket, Skout, TangoMe, and Yahoo (Tumblr) of infringing an image processing patent (8,437,797). At issue are the defendants’ mobile applications that allow users to send photos to each other. To date, nearly thirty companies have been sued over the ‘797 patent via three separate litigation campaigns, all waged by various entities controlled by inventor Leigh M. Rothschild. Past defendants include Apple, Canon, HTC, LG Electronics, Microsoft, Panasonic, Samsung, and Sony, as well as Ricoh, which was sued earlier this month.

Inventor Leigh M. Rothschild has kicked off October with nine new patent suits—five filed by Battery Conservation Innovations, LLC (BCI), three by Scanning Technologies Innovations, LLC (STI), and one by Rothschild Patent Imaging LLC (RPI). On October 4, STI lodged five separate complaints against Bindo Labs, iConnect, Lightspeed, Microbiz, and Smartosc, accusing the defendants’ point-of-sale systems of infringing a mobile device patent (9,053,498). BCI launched its first and sole litigation campaign to date two days later with suits against Easton Sports, Sony, and Zepp Sports, alleging infringement of a patent generally related to a battery-conserving flashlight (9,239,158). Smart athletic sensors are the accused products. RPI closed out the first week of October with a complaint against Ricoh, accusing the company of infringing an image processing patent (8,437,797) through provision of its Pentax K-S2 camera. With these latest filings, NPEs controlled by Rothschild—which to date number over 20—have filed more than 260 patent infringement suits against operating companies.

Prolific inventor and plaintiff Leigh M. Rothschild has now asserted one of his 80+ patents (8,437,797) under the ownership of a third entity in just two years. The ‘797 patent issued to Rothschild in May 2013 as part of a family of five (8,204,437; 8,594,722; 8,798,544; 8,897,833) and generally relates to wireless exchange of digital images between devices. It has a relatively short but complicated litigation history, having been asserted for the first time in litigation by Rothschild Storage Retrieval Innovations, LLC (RSRI), a Florida entity, in July 2014 before the inventor recorded a transfer of rights to a new plaintiff called Texas Patent Imaging LLC, which pled existence in Texas without ever having registered to conduct business in the state. These moves appear to be part of a general shift in Rothschild’s enforcement strategy toward Texas.

Rothschild Storage Retrieval Innovations initiated its first campaign with seven infringement suits against Apple, HTC, LG, Motorola Mobility, Nokia, Samsung, and Sony. The complaints accuse defendants’ smartphones, tablets, and digital audio devices of infringing a patent related to exchange of digital images between two devices (8,437,797). The patent originated with Rothschild Mobile Imaging Innovations and does not appear to have been previously litigated. In early July 2014, Leigh M. Rothschild changed the name of Rothschild Beverage Innovations to Rothschild Storage Retrieval Innovations; days later, one of his other entities, Rothschild Mobile Imaging Innovations, assigned the ‘797 patent to the plaintiff entity.