Battle-Tested Synchronization Patent Asserted Against Dell

Modern Telecom Systems, LLC, a new NPE incorporated in Delaware on February 13, 2017, has asserted a single patent (6,504,886) with a long history, this time against Dell (1:17-cv-00208), targeting various desktops, laptops, and printers made and sold by the company. The ‘886 patent has been characterized over the course of its litigation life as a “learning sequence patent”, generally related to synchronization signals exchanged by network interfaces (in the past, dial-up modems) to learn how to communicate with one another. The new complaint targets Wi-Fi-enabled computing devices, alleging that operations compatible with particular Wi-Fi standards infringe the ‘886 patent. It has been asserted in two prior campaigns: one brought by V-Dot Technologies LLC between August 2010 and January 2012 against Acer and HP and the other waged by Modern Telecom Systems LLC, a California entity (without a comma), between March 2014 and June 2016, against ASUS, Earthlink, Fujitsu, Lenovo, Microsoft, Toshiba, UNICOM (US Robotics), United Online (Juno, NetZero), and Verizon (AOL).