Coding Technologies, LLC v. Genesis Today, Inc.

Throughout the last few years, prolific inventor and patent plaintiff Leigh M. Rothschild has consistently remained one of the top filers of NPE litigation. 2019 was no different. Last year saw over 160 defendants added to campaigns launched by plaintiffs associated with Rothschild, the campaigns spanning a wide range of technologies and now involving suits filed (and typically litigated in file-and-settle fashion) in myriad districts. A quick glance at the plaintiff’s early 2020 filings suggest that this year will see more of the same.

The second of two QR (Quick Response) Code campaigns litigated by frequent plaintiff Leigh M. Rothschild has snagged five more defendants in the early days of 2019. Suits against Delta Electronics (3:19-cv-00067), Driscoll’s (5:19-cv-00069), Hyland’s (2:19-cv-00079), Iconix Ecom (1:19-cv-00118), and TP-Link (8:19-cv-00019) brought the number of defendants hit by Coding Technologies, LLC above 80. As throughout the campaign, the NPE asserts in these new complaints a single patent generally related to information retrieval using a barcode. The number of defendants in the Coding Technologies campaign has yet to overtake the number tagged in Rothschild’s earlier QR code campaign, litigated by affiliates RFID Technology Innovations, LLC and Symbology Innovations, LLC, which neared 135 with the addition of three defendants (Converse, Pilot Corporation of America, and Vital Farms) this past November.

In March 2018, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) saw petitions for inter partes review (IPR) filed in a variety of notable campaigns, including those waged by publicly traded Quarterhill Inc.; privately held XR Communications, LLC; and inventor Leigh M. Rothschild. The Board also instituted trial throughout March in campaigns brought by Oyster Optics, LLC and Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited. In addition, the PTAB granted in March a motion to amend in two IPRs against prolific plaintiff Realtime Data, LLC, also issuing final decisions involving patents asserted by Uniloc; Papst Licensing GmbH & Company Kg; Evolved Wireless LLC; Game and Technology Co., Ltd; and TQ Delta LLC.

In just two months, the number of defendants in the second of named inventor and frequent plaintiff Leigh M. Rothschild’s QR (Quick Response) Code campaign has swollen close to 50. Last week, the plaintiff, Coding Technologies, LLC, filed ten new complaints, one each against Acuity Brands, AstraZeneca, Blackboard, Calix, Chevron, Cognizant Technology Solutions, Cypress Semiconductor, DuPont, Digi International, and ITT Manufacturing Enterprises. The defendants are accused of infringing a patent generally related to providing content from a server in response to a photographic image taken of a “code pattern”.