Neodron Ltd. v. STMicroelectronics, Inc. et al DC

Sonraí Memory Limited has sued Kingston Technology (8:21-cv-01039) and Western Digital (8:21-cv-01040) over the provision of devices that contain “SanDisk/Toshiba 64L 3D NAND flash chips”, as well as solid state drives (SSDs) that include Silicon Motion SSD controllers (Kingston) or Marvell SSD controllers (Western Digital). These new suits expand a campaign that started in February of this year with Western District of Texas cases against Alphabet (Google), LG Electronics (LGE), and Samsung and that proceeded with separate additional suits filed against Apple, Dell, and Kioxia in April, also in West Texas. The new litigation, by contrast, has been filed in the Central District of California.

February and March 2021 settlements ended the first two actions that Neodrón Limited filed before the International Trade Commission (ITC), as well as overlapping and parallel cases against Amazon, Apple, Dell, Lenovo (Motorola Mobility), LG Electronics (LGE), Microsoft, Samsung, and Sony. The Irish NPE’s touchscreen litigation campaign is not over, however, as district court cases remain active against several other defendants, including all three that Neodrón just hit again, with a new ITC complaint filed against proposed respondents Infineon (Cypress Semiconductor), Renesas, and STMicro (337-TA-3549) and with overlapping Western District of Texas cases against each of those same companies (6:21-cv-00545, 6:21-cv-00546, 6:21-cv-00547, respectively).

Neodrón Limited has added separate Eastern District of Texas cases against Fujitsu (2:20-cv-00239) and Panasonic (2:20-cv-00241) to its ever more sprawling touchscreen litigation campaign. The three patents asserted against these latest defendants have already made an appearance against others in suit, with infringement allegations throughout targeting the provision of certain products that feature touch screens, including convertible laptops, tablets, and touchscreen displays. Two actions before the International Trade Commission (ITC) have prompted stays in most of the earlier district court cases in the campaign—but not in all of them. This month District Judge Susan Illston handed down an order construing disputed claim terms in a case filed against Lenovo (Motorola Mobility) in the Northern District of California, roughly two weeks after District Judge Alan D. Albright held a Markman hearing in a set of consolidated cases in the Western District of Texas.

Neodrón Limited has filed yet another suit against Samsung (Samsung Display) (6:20-cv-00623) over patents from its touch sensors and controls portfolio, two of them already making appearances in other complaints in the campaign and three of them new to litigation. The plaintiff again targets the provision of certain laptops, smartphones, and tablets, including the Notebook 9 Pro laptop, Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S10 smartphones, and Galaxy Tab A tablets. Neodrón’s campaign has been growing steadily since it began in May 2019, with most district court cases, including this one, filed in the Western District of Texas, along with two actions before the International Trade Commission (ITC).

Neodrón Limited has followed up recent suits, one against Infineon Technologies (Cypress Semiconductor) in the Western District of Texas and another against TI in the Eastern District of Texas, with a complaint filed against STMicro (6:20-cv-00560), also in the Western District. The NPE targets the provision of certain STM touchcontrollers—including the “FTM5CU56A, and STM32 microcontrollers, such as STM32F0, STM32F3, STM32FL0, STM32L1, and STM32L4 series and STM32L0538-DISCO and STM32F072B-DISCO”—with four touch sensitive control patents, three of which are familiar to existing campaign defendants and one of which is new to the litigation.

Last week Neodrón Limited added two suits—one against Infineon Technologies (Cypress Semiconductor) (6:20-cv-00523) in the Western District of Texas and another against TI (2:20-cv-00190) in the Eastern District of Texas—to the touch-sensitive devices campaign that it began roughly one year ago. Several former Atmel patents are asserted in each complaint, two of which are new to litigation. With these additional cases, the number of defendants in the campaign has now passed a dozen and the number of patents asserted, to two dozen.