Weatherproof Wireless, LLC has asserted the networking equipment patent (7,522,876) that it acquired in April. The ‘876 patent generally relates to a wireless router with weatherproof housing, including an antenna, a mounting bracket, and a “wire harness” for electrical connection. Weatherproof Wireless, a subsidiary of Monument Patent Holdings, LLC, has accused Digi International (1:17-cv-00785) of infringement through the manufacture and sale of its Digi Utility Communication Hub with 4G LTE. With this suit, June marks the fifth consecutive month to see a new litigation campaign by a Monument subsidiary.

The ‘876 patent issued in April 2009 with estimated priority date in April 2004, based on the filing of a provisional application by NexGen City, a failed company developing mesh network technology over a decade ago. Its named inventors are Henry D. Meitzen, who reports having been NexGen’s COO from 2002 to 2004, and Maurice L. Pipken, reporting having been NexGen’s CTO during the same period. By 2009, NexGen had ceased operations, the company having assigned its rights in the ‘876 patent (which it had collected from the two named inventors a few months earlier) to PHC LLC, an Oklahoma entity formed in July 2006. David Hull signed the April 2017 assignment of the ‘876 patent, together with one other issued US patent (7,212,102) to Weatherproof Wireless on PHC’s behalf. Hull also signed as the president of NGC Enterprises, LLC (formed in Delaware in October 2002), the general partner for NexGen City, L.P. (formed in Texas that same month), the assignor to PHC back in 2006 of the ‘876 patent, as well as multiple other patent assets. Mark Patton, currently the president of Quest Automated Services, was the founder and CEO of NexGen City, which his bio claims “built the worlds [sic] first and largest Mesh Network of its kind…to provide first responders with high-speed data communications…[over an area] 60 square miles wide”. Meitzen currently holds himself out as the CTO and COO for Aculan, and Pipken, an IT consultant, both in the Dallas area.

Weatherproof Wireless was formed in Texas in October 2016 as “Monument White, LLC” with Monument as its manager, changing its name prior to filing suit. Monument Patent Holdings is an affiliate of Dominion Harbor Group, LLC, and various of its subsidiaries have launched more than a dozen litigation campaigns over the past two years. Five of those Dominion/Monument campaigns have been filed in 2017: Blue Sky Networks, LLC (February); Wireless Switch IP, LLC (March); Pure Data Systems, LLC (April); Mobile Networking Solutions, LLC (May); and Weather Wireless (June). Monument has also recently created three more Texas entities—Portal Communications, LLC; Local Intelligence, LLC; and Precision Timing, LLC—each of which has yet to file suit.

Monument’s practice prior to the US Supreme Court’s TC Heartland decision (additional details about which can be found here and here) had been to litigate in the Eastern District of Texas. In its complaint against Digi, Weatherproof Wireless first pleads that the defendant is a Delaware corporation, before alleging proper venue in bare bones fashion. 6/19, District of Delaware.