Technology Licensing Company (TLC) [NPE] filed suit against Azend Group over a patent related to DVD technology.  The plaintiff has licensed the patent-in-suit to over 35 manufacturers and sellers of DVD players.  TLC has filed over 40 suits since 2001 against defendants including Pioneer, Best Buy, Vizio, and Yamaha. Thirty of those filings asserted the current patent-in-suit, which was assigned to TLC by the inventor, Charles Kulas.  Kulas is the solo inventor on 13 issued US patents and co-inventor on two patents assigned to Sony and one assigned to Cisco.  Kulas was formerly an attorney at Townsend & Townsend.  He is currently an attorney with Trellis IP Law Group along with John Carpenter and Daniel Remer. Carpenter and Remer are the recorded assignees of the Kulas patent.  The attorney profile for Kulas on the Trellis IP Web site says that he “wrote the Eolas patent” while he was at Townsend & Townsend.  Remer is the only listed contact on the TLC Web site. A FAQ on the TLC site notes: Q: Can I have a test DVD to see if my hardware/software infringes? A: You may order a test DVD by using the email form above to contact Daniel Remer.  If you can play this test DVD your hardware infringes.”  1/23, Northern District of California, 3:2012cv00357.