Marking Object Virtualization Intelligence, LLC v. Sonus Networks, Inc. DC

For the third week running, Texas-based NPE Marking Object Virtualization Intelligence, LLC (MOVI) has continued to expand its new digital rights management (DRM) campaign, filing a further seven suits against F5 Networks, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), and Trend Micro (2:16-cv-01115); Huawei (2:16-cv-01097); Kudelski (Civolution, NexGuard) (2:16-cv-01099); NEC (2:16-cv-01103); Sonus Networks (2:16-cv-01100); STMicroelectronics (2:16-cv-01113); and Xilinx (2:16-cv-01109). As in previous filings, these complaints assert various combinations of patents from a group of 17 that the NPE acquired from Rovi Corporation in July, prior to the latter’s name change to TiVo Corporation. MOVI characterizes the subject matter of the portfolio as related to DRM and digital watermarking. A variety of accused products are at issue: F5 Networks, HPE, Huawei, NEC, and Trend Micro are alleged to infringe through various types of networking hardware and software, Kudelski through its forensic watermarking (i.e. piracy tracking) software, HPE and Sonus Networks through their web-based communications software, STMicroelectronics through microcontrollers and systems-on-a-chip (SOCs), and Xilinx through its Vivado chip design software.

Texas NPE Marking Object Virtualization Intelligence, LLC (MOVI) has continued to expand its new digital rights management (DRM) campaign, filing five new lawsuits against Dell, F5 Networks, and SAP (2:16-cv-01066); First Data (2:16-cv-01062); Hitachi (2:16-cv-01055); Koninklijke Philips (2:16-cv-01061); and Symantec (2:16-cv-01056). MOVI first began filing litigation last week and has asserted various combinations of nine patents from a group of over fifteen patents that the NPE acquired from Rovi Corporation in July, prior to that company’s name change to TiVo Corporation. Others hit by MOVI’s initial wave of filings include Arista (2:16-cv-01042), ARRIS (2:16-cv-01045), Barracuda Networks (2:16-cv-01038), Cisco (2:16-cv-01040), Fujitsu (2:16-cv-01046), and SAP (also sued in the same complaint as Fujitsu). All seven new defendants have been accused of infringement through products related to enterprise networking, as in previous complaints, while First Data is also alleged to infringe through its payment terminals, Koninklijke Philips through the provision of smart TVs, and Symantec through its disk imaging software.

In July 2016, Rovi Corporation (before its name change to TiVo Corporation) assigned over 15 US patents to a new, perhaps aptly named Texas NPE Marking Object Virtualization Intelligence, LLC (MOVI), which has now filed suit. MOVI’s new complaints assert five of the assigned patents against Arista (2:16-cv-01042); five against ARRIS (2:16-cv-01045); three against Barracuda Networks (2:16-cv-01038); seven against Cisco (2:16-cv-01040); five against Fujitsu (2:16-cv-01046); and one against SAP (sued in the same complaint as Fujitsu). MOVI broadly characterizes the patents as related to digital rights management and digital watermarking, using a thesaurus of impressive adjectives (“foundational”, “breakthrough”, “fundamental”, “landmark”, “industry-leading”, “groundbreaking”, “trailblazing”, “innovative”, etc.) to describe their alleged contributions to those fields throughout the complaints, which detail the development work of Rovi’s predecessor, Macrovision. Various networking products and services offered by the defendants are the accused products.