In an Eastern District of Texas complaint, Sovereign Peak Ventures, LLC (SPV), a Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC plaintiff, has sued OnePlus Technology (2:24-cv-00654) over wireless charging patents from its large portfolio of former Panasonic assets. The new case follows the June 2024 dismissal with prejudice, in light of a settlement, in a Western District of Texas suit that SPV filed in November 2023 against HMD Global, which itself followed the dismissal of a previous case, against HP Enterprise (HPE). SPV has been proceeding in roughly serial fashion—against LG Electronics, TCL, Hisense, Acer, ASUSTek, HP, TP-Link, HPE, and HMD Global—since this litigation campaign began, back in April 2020.
SPV trains its infringement allegations, over eight wireless charging patents (9,620,282; 9,935,481; 9,991,735; 10,044,225; 10,230,272; 10,468,913; 10,574,090; 11,070,075), on mobile devices (i.e., the OnePlus 8 Pro, 9, 9 Pro, 10 Pro, and 12-series smartphones) that support Qi wireless charging. The dispute with each prior defendant has ended within a year of filing, with a settlement typically following a fledgling contest over some threshold issue (e.g., a convenience transfer in the case against HMD Global, etc.). For further background coverage, see “Dominion’s SPV Sues HMD Global as TP-Link Contests Personal Jurisdiction” (November 2023).
Dominion Harbor (as Dominion Harbor Enterprises and in its earlier incarnation, Dominion Harbor Group, LLC) was cofounded by former IP Navigation Group, LLC (d/b/a IPNav) cofounder and former CEO David Pridham. (Dominion Harbor Group was formed in Texas in October 2013; around March 2017, the Group appears to have shifted operations to the Enterprises entity, which was formed in Texas in January 2016 with Pridham as its managing member.) In 2017 and earlier, the firm picked up relatively small portfolios for assertion through entities formed by its litigation arm Monument Patent Holdings, LLC, a growing number of those acquisitions from IV. However, Dominion has more recently shifted toward larger portfolio acquisitions, deepening its relationship with IV and actually returning some of its smaller-sized portfolios to their prior owners.
Connor Lee & Shumaker PLLC filed the new complaint for SPV. The case has yet to be assigned to a judge. 8/9, Eastern District of Texas.
