Barkan Wireless Access Technologies, L.P. v. T-Mobile US, Inc. et al.

Inventor-controlled Barkan Wireless IP Holdings, L.P. has sued Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile) and Nokia (2:21-cv-00034) in a single Eastern District of Texas complaint, accusing them both of infringing three patents through the provision of the 4G LTE CellSpot and 4G LTE CellSpot v2, miniature cellular base stations sold for home or office use. The patents, generally related to add-on base stations or gateways in cellular networks, have been in suit since January 2018, with several claim construction orders already on the books and a trial scheduled for April 2021, all while an appeal to the Federal Circuit from an inter partes review (IPR), centering on the identification of all real parties in interest, remains active.

Inventor-controlled Barkan Wireless IP Holdings, L.P. has filed suit against Samsung and Verizon (Cellco Partnership) (2:18-cv-00028), alleging infringement of a family of three patents through the provision of wireless network extenders that Barkan Wireless IP contends Samsung makes and Verizon sells. The patents generally relate to expanding cellular networks by routing communications through “add-on base stations in lieu of cell phone towers”. The plaintiff identifies sole named inventor Elad Barkan, a researcher with the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, as its founder.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) continued to see the filing of petitions for inter partes review (IPR) against publicly traded NPEs in March 2017, including Acacia Research Corporation; Finjan Holdings, Inc.; Pendrell Corporation; TiVo Corporation (formerly known as Rovi Corporation); and Wi-LAN Inc. (WiLAN). A variety of prolific, privately held NPEs were also targeted for IPR throughout March, including Blackbird Tech LLC, General Patent Corporation, IP Edge LLC, Realtime Data LLC, and Papst Licensing GmbH & Company Kg, along with several inventors and inventor-controlled NPEs and an assortment of other plaintiffs.

Barkan Wireless Access Technologies L.P. has filed its second infringement suit to date, adding Verizon (Cellco) to its campaign targeting wireless networks and mobile devices (2:16-cv-00293). As in its first suit, filed in January against T-Mobile (2:16-cv-00063), Barkan’s complaint against Verizon asserts two wireless Internet patents (8,559,369; 9,042,306) and focuses on mobile devices that connect to Verizon’s broadband wireless network and provide a local area network (LAN) over which other devices may connect to the company’s wireless network. The accused products include Apple and Samsung smartphones and tablets, but neither of those companies is a named defendant. (Likewise, Barkan’s complaint against T-Mobile accused mobile devices manufactured by Alcatel-Lucent, Apple, BlackBerry, HTC, Huawei, Kyocera, Nokia, or Samsung, but did not name those companies as defendants.)

Barkan Wireless Access Technologies L.P. has filed its first infringement suit, asserting two wireless Internet patents (8,559,369; 9,042,306) against T-Mobile (2:16-cv-00063). The NPE’s infringement allegations focus on mobile devices that have the capability to connect to T-Mobile’s broadband wireless network and that provide a local area network (LAN) over which other devices may connect to the company’s wireless network. The accused products include smartphones and/or tablets manufactured by Alcatel, Apple, BlackBerry, HTC, Huawei, Kyocera, Nokia, or Samsung, although none of those companies are named as defendants in Tuesday’s case.