April 12, 2012 – Judge William Bryson of the Eastern District of Texas granted plaintiff TQP Development’s [NPE] motion for leave to serve amended infringement contentions.  TQP filed suit against TD Ameritrade (TD) on February 5, 2010, alleging infringement of the 5,412,730 patent that relates to encrypted data transmission that randomly alters encryption keys.  TD responded by filing a request for reexamination of the ‘730 patent, which the PTO granted and subsequently confirmed claims 1 and 2 and added dependent claims 3, 6, 8, and 9.  Following the PTO’s ruling, TQP Development provided new claim charts and filed the aforementioned motion.  As part of the motion, the judge also granted TQP’s request “to add new allegedly infringing instrumentalities that relate to [TD’s] internal systems.”  This additional grant was based on TQP’s assertion that “it was unable to include those contentions in its initial infringement contentions because it gained knowledge of the facts underlying those contentions during discovery.  The court is satisfied that [plaintiff’s] motion is justified and would serve the interests of judicial economy by resolving all of [its] claims in a single action.”  TQP Development is an Erich Spangenberg patent enforcement entity that was previously named Safe Sales Tech and The PACid Group.  Spangenberg is the owner of several patent licensing companies including IP Navigation and Plutus IP.  As of December 2011, TQP had filed 13 patent infringement suits against over 150 defendants, including Amazon, American Express, Apple, CVS, Dell, eBay, HP, PayPal, RIM, Time Warner, and UPS.  4/10, Eastern District of Texas, Judge William C. Bryson, 2:2008cv00471.