Location Services IP, LLC v. Yahoo!, Inc.

The number of defendants in the sole litigation campaign of Location Services IP, LLC (LSI) has approached 50, after the NPE filed four new complaints, one each against Chick-Fil-A (2:16-cv-01177), Dunkin’ Donuts (2:16-cv-01178), GasBuddy (2:16-cv-01179), and 7-Eleven (2:16-cv-01176). Three patents (6,202,023; 6,356,834; 8,935,220) generally related to location-based mapping services, with the accused products throughout the campaign having been location-aware mobile apps and websites with location-mapping features.

Location Services IP, LLC (LSI) has added Comcast, Groupon, Priceline.com, McDonald’s, and Shopkick to a campaign targeting location-aware mobile apps and websites with location-mapping features (e.g. store locator services). Since launching this litigation campaign in February 2015, LSI has sued 24 companies over a group of related patents that generally concern location-based mapping services (5,839,088; 6,047,236; 6,202,023; 6,356,834; 8,935,220). Every case has involved at least three of the patents-in-campaign; some cases, e.g. those against AT&T, Foursquare, Microsoft, and Yahoo, have involved all five. Defendants include retailers, restaurants, banks, ride-share operators, wireless carriers, crowd-sourcing websites, and companies that offer mapping applications.

New NPE Location Services IP, LLC filed suits against AT&T, Foursquare, Telenav, Walmart, and Yahoo, the first cases it has filed. Location Services owns a family of 13 patents related to location based services, four of which are asserted in these cases (5,839,088, 6,202,023, 6,356,834, 8,935,220). The defendants all make or provide applications that collect user location information, which are accused of infringing the patents-in-suit. RPX reviewed the asserted patents in September 2013 as part of a larger portfolio offered in an open market opportunity (Go2 – OMA).