Lone Star Technological Innovations, LLC v. NEC Corporation DC

An Eastern District of Texas jury has returned an $825K verdict in favor of Lone Star Technological Innovations, LLC and against ASUSTek. Eight claims of a single patent—generally related to changing the hue and/or saturation of an individual color in an output digital video image—were found infringed and not proven invalid. No doubt the parties will now turn to posttrial briefs over issues raised in the trial, but their interaction will not be confined to this case; in April, the same plaintiff sued ASUSTek (6:21-cv-00336) over two other patents in its portfolio, picked up in September 2013 from Oplus Technologies Ltd., an Israeli fabless semiconductor design company that developed video processors for the digital display market.

NEC (6:17-cv-00687) is the latest defendant to be added to the sole litigation campaign of Lone Star Technological Innovations, LLC. The NPE asserts the same two patents, generally related to changing the hue and/or saturation of an individual color in an output digital video image, that have been at issue since the campaign began in 2015. The prior cases, against Acer, Dell, and Sharp, have each been dismissed, Dell’s without prejudice and within a couple of months. The cases against Acer and Sharp were dismissed with prejudice in late March in light of settlements after a November 10, 2016 claim construction hearing, while a June case filed against LG Electronics was voluntarily dismissed in late November. The defendants’ projectors, monitors, and displays have been at issue in the campaign, with Lone Star’s latest complaint targeting NEC’s “televisions, projectors, monitors, commercial displays, medical displays and/or other video displays”.

Lone Star Technological Innovations, LLC has filed a new case in the campaign that it began in 2015, asserting the same two patents previously in suit (6,724,435; 6,122,012) against LG Electronics (LGE) (6:17-cv-00351). The patents generally relate to changing the hue and/or saturation of an individual color in an output digital video image. The prior cases, against Acer, Dell, and Sharp, have each been dismissed, Dell’s without prejudice and within a couple of months. The cases against Acer and Sharp were dismissed with prejudice in late March in light of settlements after a November 10, 2016 claim construction hearing. The defendants’ projectors, monitors, and displays have been at issue in the campaign.