Failure to Maintain Active Corporate Status in Texas Blows Sockeye, Salmon out of the Eastern District

Beginning with HP (1:15-cv-09341) on October 21, 2015, several defendants recently sued for patent infringement in the Eastern District of Texas by Sockeye Licensing TX LLC have filed separate actions in the Northern District of Illinois, seeking declaratory judgments that the two patents in the campaign (8,135,342, 8,879,987) are invalid and not infringed. Xerox (1:15-cv-09341), NEC (1:15-cv-09341), ZTE (1:15-cv-09589), Roku (1:15-cv-09577), Best Buy (1:15-cv-09625), and Sony (1:15-cv-09628), like HP, have each alleged that Sockeye forfeited its right to do business in Texas by failing to file an annual report and pay franchise taxes. These failures, according to the Illinois complaints, render the assignment of the two patents to Sockeye null and void, destroying Sockeye’s standing to sue anyone for infringement of them on the date of filing in Texas.