Paluxy Messaging LLC v. Shoretel, Inc.

Multiple Delaware NPEs under the same apparent control have each taken over the litigation of patents—earlier passed to a Texas entity for assertion—after the patents have boomeranged back. Most recently, Circuit Ventures LLC assigned a family of circuit monitoring patents to Texas entity Wireless Monitoring Systems LLC, which asserted them in litigation from November 2016 to January 2019 before assigning the family back. Circuit Ventures has sued NXP Semiconductors (6:19-cv-00275) and Pepprl + Fuchs (4:19-cv-01515) in April 2019 and Honeywell (1:19-cv-00857), Link Interactive (1:19-cv-00856), and Scout Security (1:19-cv-00858) so far in May. Likewise, Universal Cipher LLC assigned a single patent generally related to “dynamic” text generation to Cumberland Systems, LLC, which asserted it in litigation from May 2017 to May 2018 before returning the patent to Universal Cipher, which has now sued Best Buy (2:19-cv-00160), Target (2:19-cv-00163), and Wal-Mart (2:19-cv-00164) over it. These reversals, as well as other assignment activity, suggest a return to Delaware for these and other NPEs affiliated with the same patent attorney, perhaps motivated by a recent Federal Circuit opinion clarifying that targets of letter-writing campaigns can seek declaratory judgments in their home districts, rather than risk being sued elsewhere.

Inventor Leigh M. Rothschild has continued his streak of conceding to venue challenges in Texas, less than a year after largely consolidating his litigation in that state. On July 18 and 24, dockets were opened in the Central District of California and Delaware, respectively, for the cases against ShopStyle (1:17-cv-00978) and Clique Media (2:17-cv-05463) brought by the Rothschild-controlled Product Association Technologies, LLC after the defendants filed motions to dismiss due to improper venue in the Eastern District of Texas cases against them (2:17-cv-00270, 2:17-cv-00265). Product Association also dismissed cases against IAC Search & Media (2:17-cv-00269) and Verizon (Altaba (f/k/a Yahoo), Polyvore, Yahoo Holding) (2:17-cv-00272, 2:17-cv-00268) with prejudice on July 20 after the defendants filed motions to dismiss for improper venue or, in the alternative, to dismiss due to the alleged invalidity of the asserted patent (6,154,738) under Alice. Each of those virtually identical motions was filed on June 26 and alleged that the ‘738 patent is impermissibly directed to the abstract idea of “locating and sending product information in response to a request”.

Paluxy Messaging, LLC has added four more defendants to its new litigation campaign: Altice (Cequel (d/b/a Suddenlink)) (6:16-cv-01356), Charter Communications (6:16-cv-01357), RingCentral (6:16-cv-01354), and Vonage (6:16-cv-01355). A few days earlier, the newly formed NPE started the campaign with cases against 8×8, Longview Cable Television, Nextiva, and ShoreTel. All eight complaints assert a single patent (8,411,829) generally related to a messaging system that separately transmits copies of recorded messages. The NPE accuses the defendants of infringement through the provision of voicemail services. The ‘829 patent issued in April 2013 with five named inventors, including James D. Logan, a prolific inventor and the founder of multiple operating companies and NPEs, and Charles Call, an Illinois patent attorney named with Logan on several of his patents.

Recently formed Texas NPE Paluxy Messaging, LLC has initiated a first litigation campaign with new cases filed against 8×8 (6:16-cv-01346), Longview Cable Television (6:16-cv-01345), Nextiva (6:16-cv-01348), and ShoreTel (6:16-cv-01350). Paluxy asserts a single patent (8,411,829) generally related to a messaging system that separately transmits copies of recorded messages. The NPE accuses the defendants of infringement through provision of their voicemail services. The ‘829 patent has five named inventors, one of whom, James D. Logan, is a prolific inventor whose patents have been the subject of high-profile past litigation, including the long-running Personal Audio LLC campaign. Public filings in connection with an appeal to the New Hampshire Supreme Court from Logan’s divorce decree indicate that his now second ex-wife, Caren, has been awarded, through a separate patent stipulation, a percentage interest in Logan’s patent holdings through the companies that own them.