Rothschild Connected Devices Innovations,LLC v. Belkin International, Inc. DC

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) continued to see petitions for AIA review filed against prolific litigants in July, including a wave of petitions against Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited across four separate campaigns, with petitions also brought against General Patent Corporation, Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV), Papst Licensing GmbH & Company Kg, and Quarterhill Inc. Meanwhile, throughout July, the Board instituted trial for inter partes reviews (IPRs) filed in semiconductor campaigns waged by Harvard University and the California Institute of Technology, with trial also instituted in campaigns related to network data compression (Realtime Data LLC), servers and data management (IV), and anti-malware technology (Finjan Holdings, Inc.). Final decisions issued by the Board in July included one that cancelled claims from a patent that has been asserted by Rothschild Connected Devices Innovations, LLC, an NPE controlled by inventor Leigh M. Rothschild, against more than 60 defendants.

Rothschild Connected Devices Innovations, LLC (RCDI), one of the litigating NPEs of prolific named inventor and plaintiff Leigh M. Rothschild, continues to add cases to its campaign, asserting both one patent (8,788,090) that has been at issue since the first cases, filed in February 2015, and the ‘090 patent’s earliest issuing relative (7,899,713). The patents generally relate to remotely customizing a consumer product based on user preferences. The new defendants are Garmin (2:17-cv-00158) and Lenovo (Motorola Mobility) (2:17-cv-00159), and the accused products are Garmin’s activity tackers (e.g the Garmin VivoActive HR) and Motorola Mobility’s smartwatches (e.g. the Moto 360). It appears that RCDI began asserting the ‘713 patent after two petitions for inter partes review (IPR) were filed in early 2016, the first one filed by RPX, challenging certain claims of the ‘090 patent.

Newly formed Rothschild Connected Devices Innovations, LLC sued 19 companies in a single day for alleged patent infringement, including ADT, Belkin, Brick House, Cisco, General Electric, Honeywell, NETGEAR, OnStar, Panasonic, Philips, Rain Bird, Sharp, Toshiba, Tyco, Uniden, and Vivint. Rothschild alleges the companies’ customizable systems, including security systems and home appliances, infringe a patent related to customizing consumer products based on user preferences (8,788,090). This appears to be the first time the patent, which was issued in July 2014, has been asserted in litigation.