ACQIS LLC v. Lenovo Group Ltd. et al

ACQIS LLC (d/b/a ACQIS) has filed suit against ASUSTek (6:20-cv-00966), Inventec (6:20-cv-00965), Lenovo (6:20-cv-00967), MiTAC (6:20-cv-00962), and Wistron (Wiwynn) (6:20-cv-00968), over the support of the “[peripheral component interconnect express] PCIe and/or USB 3.x” functionality within a wide variety of devices (e.g., computers, laptops, motherboards, and servers). The new cases, filed in the Western District of Texas, join an active September 2020 suit filed in the Eastern District of Texas against Samsung and a September 2013 suit against Dell (EMC), the latter having been transferred from East Texas to the District of Massachusetts, where fully briefed dispositive motions have been on ice for more than two years.

ACQIS LLC (d/b/a ACQIS) has added a case against Samsung (2:20-cv-00295) to a litigation campaign that it began over a decade ago. The inventor-controlled plaintiff targets—with previously well-litigated patents and with patents new to litigation—support of “[peripheral component interconnect express] PCIe and/or USB 3.x functionality” in a variety of Samsung mobile devices, including smartphones, tablets, computers, and TVs. This campaign has proceeded in waves, one filed in 2009 against IBM and others, which ended in early 2012; and another filed in September 2013 against four defendants, including EMC (subsequently acquired by Dell), which case remains “active” in the District of Massachusetts. This past March, counsel for ACQIS respectfully requested that District Judge Allison D. Burroughs set a hearing for dispositive motions sitting fully briefed since September 2018 and also set a trial date, noting that the “inventor . . . is approaching seventy, that “[t]he expert witnesses are in their sixties”, and that he, counsel for ACQIS, is in his “late sixties”.