GenghisComm Holdings, LLC has filed a Southern District of California case against multiple LG Electronics (LGE) entities (3:23-cv-01363), targeting the provision of mobile devices (e.g., smartphones and tablets) compliant with the 4G LTE or 5G wireless standards. Eight wireless communications patents are asserted, drawn from the same portfolio giving rise to claims against prior defendants in this campaign: ASUSTek, OnePlus, and Toyota.
Steven J. (“Steve”) Shattil, the sole named inventor for each of the patents-in-suit (9,768,842; 10,200,227; 10,389,568; 11,075,786; 11,223,508; 11,252,005; 11,381,285; 11,424,792), is described in the plaintiff’s complaints as its director. GenghisComm Holdings was created in Colorado in November 2014. Currently available USPTO records suggest that the entity now holds around 60 issued US patents, down from roughly 100 after it assigned three dozen to Tybalt, LLC. Tybalt appears to be another Shattil entity, formed in Colorado on January 2, 2022, its new holdings viewable on RPX Insight here.
On social media, Shattil identifies himself as having been the “Director of Intellectual Property Strategy and Licensing” with GenghisComm Holdings from October 2008 through the present. Previously, he identified that position as having ended November 2021, describing the company as “implement[ing] patent strategies for the world’s leading companies across the telecommunications and energy industries” and further describing his own position as “Director of Wireless Patent Strategy”. In that capacity, he reported having “enabled clients to radically increase the value of their intellectual property in their respective industries, including cellular (LTE and 5G), navigation, satellite communications, wireless personal area networks, Internet of Things, optical fiber communications, content delivery networks, network fabrics, and a particularly exciting new field in Artificial Intelligence”, claiming that “[p]atent portfolios that [he] directed now cover trillions of dollars in products and services annually”.
Shattil also listed in a prior iteration of his public resume a position with Department 13, as its “Chief Science Officer” from September 2015 also through November 2021, describing his tenure there: “Through a strategy of technology development, patent acquisitions, and patent licensing, I enabled D13 to dominate the patent landscape in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) commercial services, UAV air-space management, and counter UAV markets. This gave D13 the opportunity to collect licensing revenues for products and services that total more than $200 billion per year”. Shattil identified prior positions generally related to patent/patenting strategy with various companies, all of which has since been pared down, just to his association with the plaintiff.
GenghisComm launched this campaign in March 2022 with two Eastern District of Texas cases against ASUSTek (now consolidated after ASUSTek has answered) and one against OnePlus in the Western District of Texas (since dismissed in light of an agreement to resolve the dispute). This past May the plaintiff sued Toyota, in East Texas as well, targeting the provision of automobiles that include LTE cellular connectivity (e.g., in-car Wi-Fi hotspots). At issue are the vehicles’ compliance with various 4G LTE networking specifications and standards, with notice at least as to some of the asserted patents allegedly dated to a September 2021 letter. GenghisComm pleads that it communicated with LGE over its patent portfolio as early as November 2020.
CGS3, LLP, “A Real Estate Law Firm that is Different by Design”, in San Diego, California filed the case against LGE on GenghisComm’s behalf. Global IP Law Group LLC has represented the plaintiff elsewhere. The new case has been initially assigned to District Judge Linda Lopez. 7/27, Southern District of Texas.
