Furniture Brands International and Novartis filed two separate actions for declaratory judgment against Webvention  [NPE], seeking declaration that the plaintiffs’ websites do not infringe a patent related to hover previewing and dynamic searching.  Webvention has filed suit against more than 80 defendants and been named in more than 25 separate declaratory judgment actions since September 2010.  On its website, Webvention claims to have licensed the ’294 patent to over 330 companies. In November 2009 Webvention “merged” with Ferrara Ethereal, an Intellectual Ventures patent-holding entity. The patent-in-suit was issued to inventor, Daniel H. Abelow, and assigned to Webvention in November 2009.  12/16, District of Maryland, 1:2011cv03621; 12/19, 1:2011cv03620.