The contours of the litigation campaign being waged by Empire IP LLC’s IoT Innovations LLC are still in flux, the plaintiff having added third complaints against each of prior defendants Monitronics International (d/b/a Brinks Home) (2:23-cv-00177), hit in the Eastern District of Texas in both November 2022 and January 2023, and SimpliSafe (1:23-cv-10879), hit in the District of Massachusetts in both February and March 2023. With each complaint, the number of patents, received from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV), climbs—now reaching roughly 30 asserted, in overlapping subsets, against the two defendants. Meanwhile, assignment records made public by the USPTO suggest that Empire IP is preparing to launch its first new campaigns of 2023, one related to wireless networking and the other, to wearables.

In its third complaint against Brinks Home Security, IoT Innovations asserts 16 former IV patents, targeting the provision of its home alarm and/or security platform and systems as well as related products, including hubs, control panels, sensors, indoor and outdoor cameras, doorbell cameras, mobile apps, and its website. Brinks filed a motion to dismiss the first case against it for improper venue, which triggered the opening of discovery limited to venue-related issues, and a similar pattern has followed in the second suit: a challenge to venue and a motion to open discovery. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap presides; no ruling has issued.

In its third complaint against SimpliSafe, IoT Innovations asserts four former IV patents, targeting the provision of security systems, including the Simplisafe Base Station and Keypad; its related mobile app; paid subscription service; related servers; various wireless accessories and sensors, including indoor/outdoor cameras and video doorbells, and sensors; and the products’ support of certain encryption technologies and cellular and Wi-Fi connectivity. SimpliSafe filed a motion challenging the sufficiency of the pleading in IoT Innovations’s first complaint, prompting the plaintiff to file an amended complaint (thereby mooting the motion). District Judge Richard G. Stearns has provisionally consolidated the three cases against SimpliSafe, ordering the parties to brief any reason why the three actions should remain separate.

Empire IP principals (and attorneys) Daniel Mitry and Timothy Salmon created IoT Innovations in Texas on July 18, 2020. Affiliates of Empire IP have initiated over 50 litigation campaigns since late 2011, but recent years have seen a slowdown by the once prolific firm, with only two of those campaigns launched in 2018 (from Liberty Access Technologies Licensing LLC and Radio Integration Systems LLC); just one in 2019 (by Ghaly Devices LLC); two in 2020 (by AR Design Innovations, LLC and Fleet Connect Solutions LLC); three in 2022 (from IoT Innovations, OBD Sensor Solutions LLC, and Nearby Systems LLC); and none so far this year. See “Empire IP Launches Third Litigation Campaign of 2022” (November 2022) for more on those campaigns.

The dry spell of new Empire IP campaigns in 2023 may be about to end. In January of this year, Mitry and Salmon created Cellular Link Innovations LLC in Texas, moving a single wireless networking patent into the likely future plaintiff’s hands just a couple of weeks later. Then, early in April, Mitry and Salmon formed BT Wearables LLC in Texas. Empire IP assigned a portfolio of patents generally related to smart watches and emergency alerts, all naming Bao Tran (hence, the “BT”) as the sole inventor, to BT Wearables on April 26. New campaigns from these two entities seem likely.

To explore the slowdown of Empire IP’s litigation activity over the past decade, see RPX coverage here. 4/18, Brinks, Eastern District of Texas; 4/25, SimpliSafe, District of Massachusetts.