Mariner IC Inc. v. Bose Corporation

Publicly traded Quest Patent Research Corporation (QPRC) has added cases to two of its subsidiaries’ litigation campaigns, while also launching a third. At the beginning of this month, Photonic Imaging Solutions Inc. asserted four patents, generally related to CMOS image sensors, against ASUS, Lorex Technology, and NETGEAR; it has now sued a fourth defendant, Lenovo (1:18-cv-00636), targeting more laptops, tablets, desktop computers, and smartphones, calling out the Yoga Book YB1-X90L in the new complaint. Meanwhile, separate QPRC subsidiary Mariner IC Inc. has also sued Lenovo (2:18-cv-00168), as well as Huawei (2:18-cv-00167) and TiVo (2:18-cv-00166), over two patents broadly related to anchoring a semiconductor die to prevent cracking, after filing cases asserting those same patents against Acer, ASUS, Bose, Schneider Electronics, and Sharp in mid-March. Finally, QPRC’s CXT Systems, Inc. has kicked off a new litigation campaign with the potential to expand quickly and widely, asserting multiple patents against Academy (d/b/a Academy Sports + Outdoors) (2:18-cv-00171), Pier 1 Imports (2:18-cv-00172), and The Container Store (2:18-cv-00173), targeting their e-commerce websites.

Recent SEC filings suggest ever shakier financial ground for Quest Patent Research Corporation (QPRC), as the publicly traded NPE approaches trial in one of its open campaigns, litigated by subsidiary Semcon IP Inc.; revives a second campaign, litigated by subsidiary Mariner IC Inc.; and discloses the acquisition of yet another group of patents from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) by a third subsidiary, CXT Systems, Inc. The new defendants targeted by Mariner IC are Acer (2:18-cv-00068), ASUS (2:18-cv-00069), Bose (2:18-cv-00067), Schneider Electronics (2:18-cv-00070), and Sharp (2:18-cv-00071). The patents asserted generally relate to anchoring a semiconductor die to prevent cracking, with the accused products across the campaign being chips made from certain semiconductor dies, as well as products that contain such chips. Meanwhile, Semcon IP faces jury selection on April 2 in the Eastern District of Texas in cases filed against MediaTek, STMicro, and ZTE over separate patents, also acquired from IV.