In June 2022, Torchlight Technologies LLC filed two Delaware lawsuits, accusing GM and Mercedes-Benz (f/k/a Daimler) and Volkswagen (with subsidiaries Audi and Porsche) of infringing a group of three lighting patents through the provision of vehicles with dynamic headlight systems. Torchlight pleaded that it is the exclusive licensee of the asserted patents, which appear still to be held by their sole named inventor, Yechezkal Evan Spero. This past week, District Judge Gregory B. Williams, after reviewing the disputed materials himself, ordered Torchlight to produce to the defendants full, unredacted versions of a schedule attached to the agreement assigning the patents to Torchlight and a term sheet between a patent advisory firm and a litigation funder dated before Torchlight itself was even formed. This ruling followed August orders canceling a Markman hearing planned for this month and extending a months-long stay in place to facilitate resolution of the threshold issue of Torchlight’s standing to sue.