The Federal Circuit has now weighed in on the standing issues arising from a set of agreements governing the long relationship between Fortress Investment Group LLC and subsidiaries of Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited. The first issue arose initially in a set of cases filed against Apple and later in other actions, among them suits filed against Blackboard and Lenovo (Motorola Mobility): whether one or more defaults under mid-relationship funding agreements robbed Uniloc of sufficient rights in patents subject to those agreements such that Uniloc no longer owned the patents and therefore could not sue for infringement of them. The Federal Circuit applied collateral estoppel to block Uniloc from arguing that it retained the right to sue, holding that a settlement ended the Apple litigation before a district court opinion to the contrary was reversed (or vacated). Yet this only ended Uniloc’s related appeals in other cases filed before Fortress and Uniloc terminated the earlier controversial agreements in May 2018. In a companion decision, the Federal Circuit has held that the May 2018 termination agreement killed any license or rights granted to Fortress previously, however characterized, clearing the way for suits filed thereafter, including a set of 11 of them filed against Alphabet (Google), to proceed.
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