STC.UNM v. TP-Link Technologies Co., Ltd.

ZyXEL Communications (6:20-cv-00522) has become the sixth defendant in one of two active campaigns waged by STC.UNM, the intellectual property enforcement arm for the Board of Regents of the University of New Mexico (UNM). This campaign concerns several data transmission patents developed by Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), claims terms from which District Judge Alan D. Albright has construed in an April 2020 order. Judge Albright of the Western District of Texas moved into claim construction after denying a convenience transfer of the case, in which Apple is the defendant, to the Northern District of California. Apple has asked the Federal Circuit to reverse that refusal to transfer, arguing that it “continues to challenge the district court’s plainly erroneous venue rulings because they have effectively eliminated [convenience] transfers for patent defendants sued in the Waco Division” of the Western District.

STC.UNM, the intellectual property enforcement arm for the Board of Regents of the University of New Mexico (UNM), has added yet another case to the litigation campaign that it began in April 2019 over several data transmission patents developed by Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI). The newest defendant is Dell (EMC) (6:20-cv-00468), sued in the Western District of Texas, where District Judge Alan D. Albright recently handed down an order construing disputed terms from the same three patents, in a case filed against Apple last summer. The order, dated April 9, 2020, indicated that the court intended to enter a memorandum in support of its rulings “shortly”; the memo has not yet been added to the docket.

District Judge Alan D. Albright has denied another motion by Apple for a convenience transfer out of the Western District of Texas to the Northern District of California. STC.UNM, the intellectual property enforcement arm of the Board of Regents of the University of New Mexico, sued Apple in West Texas after beginning this campaign three months earlier with a lawsuit in the same venue against TP-Link, filed in April 2019. The presence of that prior case may have been pivotal, at least under these circumstances, to the court’s denial, in which Judge Albright also declined to rely on any arguments concerning the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic, calling them “too speculative at this time”.

STC.UNM, the intellectual property enforcement arm of the Board of Regents of the University of New Mexico, has added two more Western District of Texas cases to the litigation campaign that it began there last year, first suing TP-Link and then Apple. The new defendants are ASUSTek (6:20-cv-00142) and D-Link (6:20-cv-00143). At issue are the same three asserted data transmission patents, developed by Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), with infringement allegations targeting a long list of products alleged to practice the 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard. The suits come as STC.UNM attempts to defeat a convenience transfer to the Northern District of California in the Apple case, citing a reservation of its “sovereign right to litigate in the forum of its choosing” before engaging on the merits. Apple’s transfer motion followed by only two weeks a failed attempt to have another West Texas suit against it, also before District Judge Alan D. Albright, moved to California.

Its first case in this campaign delayed by service on TP-Link through the Hague Convention, STC.UNM, the intellectual property enforcement arm for the Board of Regents of the University of New Mexico (UNM), has added a second case, this one against Apple (6:19-cv-00428). The same three data transmission patents, acquired from Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), are at issue, with infringement allegations trained on a long list of products “adapted to operate in and with wireless telecommunications networks that at least comply with the requirements of the IEEE 802.11ac wireless networking standard”, including certain iPhones (from iPhone 6 onward), iPads, iPod Touches, MacBooks, iMacs, Mac Pros, and Mac Minis, as well as Apple TV and Apple TV 4K.

The Board of Regents of the University of New Mexico, through its intellectual property enforcement arm STC.UNM, has added a second case to the litigation campaign that it began with a suit filed against TSMC in mid-April, accusing Samsung (6:19-cv-00329) of infringing the same homegrown semiconductor fabrication patent. At issue is the provision of semiconductor devices manufactured at “several different process nodes” (i.e., minimum physical feature size or line width), including 7 nm, 8 nm, 10 nm, 11 nm, 12 nm, and 14 nm process nodes, with the NPE highlighting in particular certain semiconductor devices allegedly incorporated into Apple’s A9 chip. The new suit comes as District Judge Alan D. Albright has granted STC.UNM’s motion for alternative service on TSMC in the prior case.

STC.UNM, the technology transfer office of the University of New Mexico (UNM), has filed two new lawsuits. In the first, STC.UNM accuses TSMC (6:19-cv-00261) over a semiconductor fabrication patent issuing to the plaintiff in September 2015. TSMC is accused of infringement through the provision of semiconductor devices manufactured at “several different process nodes (i.e., minimum physical feature size or line width), including 7 nanometer, 10 nanometer, 12 nanometer, and 16 nanometer process nodes”. In the second, TP-Link (6:19-cv-00262) is accused of infringing three network data transmission patents issuing to Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) through the provision of wireless networking products supporting the 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard, including Wi-Fi network adapters (the Archer T1U, Archer T4UH, Archer T4U, Archer T2UH, and Archer T2U) and mesh routers (Deco M9, and Deco M5).