Hawk Technology Systems, LLC v. Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, LLC,

VOIT Technologies, LLC, a Florida NPE under the control of named inventor Barry Schwab, has added three more cases to its sole litigation campaign, one each against The Guitar Sanctuary (4:17-cv-00343), Medusa Skates (1:17-cv-00473), and World of Organics (4:17-cv-00344). A single patent (6,226,412), generally related to product tracking in an e-commerce platform, has been asserted against the defendants in the campaign, all of which have been accused of infringement through the operation of their websites. Schwab’s patents have been asserted in litigation by other NPEs, some under his control and some apparently independent.

Inventor-controlled Hawk Technology Systems LLC filed four new cases in October, bringing its campaign defendant count to 178. Each of this month’s suits, filed against Cinemark (2:16-cv-13817), Goodwill of Silicon Valley (5:16-cv-06213), the Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky (2:16-cv-00186), and the Louisville Arena Authority (3:16-cv-00678), asserts a video monitoring and conversion patent (RE43,462) that expired in April 2014, according to the complaints. As in all of Hawk Technology’s cases, which have primarily targeted retailers, universities, municipalities, restaurants, and banks, the NPE’s latest suits focus on the defendants’ onsite security systems.

Hawk Technology Systems, LLC continues to target retailers with two new suits, filed against Barnes & Noble (2:15-cv-10426) and Retail Services & Systems (1:15-cv-20386). Both complaints assert two patents that have been used previously in the campaign (5,625,410; RE43,462). The patents in Hawk’s campaign relate generally to video capture, management, and storage. Hawk began its litigation campaign in 2012 but filed most of its cases in 2014. It targets retailers over their video systems, in particular security cameras used in defendants’ stores. Those same products are at issue in the recent suits.