Phenix Longhorn, LLC v. Texas Instruments, Inc.

Phenix, LLC (again using past assumed name Phenix Longhorn, LLC) has filed suit against Texas Instruments (TI) (2:18-cv-00020) over a single patent generally related to an integrated circuit for LCD color correction. The complaint accuses TI of infringement through the provision of integrated circuits that allegedly implement the plaintiff’s “programmable gamma (PGamma) correction” technology, with those chips purportedly used in certain Apple iMacs and in certain televisions manufactured by either LG Electronics, Philips, Samsung, or Toshiba. Phenix ’s new suit follows a recent dismissal in a case filed against VIZIO, after roughly a year of litigation that ended with an Eastern District of Texas order transferring the case to the Northern District of California for improper venue under TC Heartland.

Texas-based NPE Phenix Longhorn, LLC has filed suit against Vizio (6:17-cv-00010), accusing the company of infringing a single patent (7,233,305) generally related to an integrated circuit for LCD color correction. At issue in the complaint are Vizio televisions with LCD panel modules made by AU Optronics that include an allegedly infringing timing control board (a component that controls the data signal received by a display and regulates the display’s refresh rate). While this is Phenix Longhorn’s first litigation in its own right, the NPE’s California-based parent, Phenix, LLC, previously asserted the ‘305 patent in a single case against Exar and subsidiary Integrated Memory Logic (IML) (6:15-cv-00436).