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Defendant’s Local Office Makes Witness Travel Less Inconvenient, Says Judge Albright
Patent Litigation Feature
Western District of Texas Alan D. Albright has frequently tangled with the Federal Circuit over his handling of convenience transfers during his time on the bench, resulting in an ongoing series of mandamus reversals that peaked in 2021 but have since largely subsided. Despite those prior rebukes, Judge Albright has continued to follow a broadly similar approach to certain aspects of the transfer analysis—including his ongoing tendency to discount inconvenience toward willing witnesses. A notable example came earlier this year, when Judge Albright—in a recently unsealed decision denying an Apple transfer motion in litigation from Proxense, LLC—held that inconvenience to a defendant’s witness traveling from outside the district is mitigated when the witness can perform their work duties from a local office.
February 10, 2025
Court Authorizes “Full and Complete Discovery”, Including Forensic Discovery, into Alleged AiPi Perpetuation of Fraud on a “Grand Scale”
In Case You Missed It
Eastern District of Virginia Judge Leonie Brinkema has deferred a ruling on a motion for civil contempt filed by Netflix against AiPi, LLC, in which Netflix argued that AiPi perpetuated a fraud on federal courts on a “grand scale”. The court has granted Netflix “full and complete discovery” before any ruling on its motion, that discovery to include the deposition of Eric Morehouse, AiPi’s corporate representative, after forensic access to “all devices used by AiPi, including but not limited to the computer of” Morehouse, as well as to email servers, if necessary, as well as “discovery into AiPi’s use of Netflix’s [marked confidential] financial information”. This ruling comes in a proceeding brought by AiPi to quash a third-party subpoena served in connection with ongoing litigation between Lauri Valjakka and Netflix in the Northern District of California.
February 9, 2025
It’s Not (Always) Good to Lay Behind the Log
In Case You Missed It
In denying a Force MOS Technology motion for summary judgment on the issue, Eastern District of Texas Chief Judge Rodney Gilstrap has sent the plaintiff to trial against ASUSTek Computer unable to argue direct infringement based on an alter ego theory concerning its subsidiaries. Last month, as Judge Gilstrap notes, Western District of Texas Judge Alan D. Albright entered judgment, based on a jury verdict, for ACQIS LLC and against ASUSTek Computer on just such a theory. Despite dinging ASUSTek’s failure to disclose this defense in a timely fashion as “vexatious” and as “work[ing] a hardship on Plaintiff and the Court”, Judge Gilstrap will keep an alter ego theory out of the trial before him because Force MOS “chose to lay behind the log”, then “chose to stay hidden behind the log”, only “coming out from behind the log at the eleventh-hour of this case”.
February 9, 2025
Polaris PowerLED Letters Trigger DJ Complaints
New Patent Litigation, TPLF
Hisense (2:25-cv-00764) and Micron Technology (1:25-cv-00073) have each filed a complaint against Polaris PowerLED Technologies, LLC, Hisense in the Central District of California and Micron in the District of Idaho. Hisense seeks declaratory judgments of noninfringement of four lighting technology patents; Micron, of eight patents, as well as declaratory judgments of unenforceability, based on inequitable conduct and unclean hands, of three of those patents, given that Micron itself allegedly “co-owns those patents and/or is licensed under those patents pursuant to the 2009 Development Agreement” with Integrated Device Technology (IDT). Micron also pleads a claim for relief under Idaho’s Bad Faith Assertion of Patent Infringement law.
February 9, 2025
Litigation over Former NXP Patents Proliferates, with More Likely Coming
New Patent Litigation
This past July, Chip Packaging Technologies, LLC (CPT) received roughly 50 US patents from NXP Semiconductors, and this past week, the recipient filed suit, accusing Infineon Technologies (2:25-cv-00147) of infringing five of the transferred assets. In the Eastern District of Texas complaint, CPT targets the provision of a wide array of semiconductor products, including buck regulators, DC/DC converters, microcontrollers, power electronics modules, power switches, systems-on-chip (SoCs), and more.
February 8, 2025
New Mobile Check Deposit Campaign Opens
New Patent Litigation
A new campaign targets the mobile check depositing within the respective banking apps of Bank of America (2:25-cv-00146), H&R Block (2:25-cv-00148), Hilltop Holdings (PlainsCapital Bank) (2:25-cv-00150), Independent Bank Group (2:25-cv-00149), Regions Financial (Regions Bank) (2:25-cv-00151), Washington Federal Bank (2:25-cv-00152), and WoodForest Financial Group (2:25-cv-00153). New Mexico plaintiff CheckWizard LLC filed all of the Eastern District of Texas complaints, which have been assigned to Chief Judge Rodney Gilstrap. The sole asserted patent here has been in litigation before, albeit briefly.
February 8, 2025
Analog Devices, Bourns Sued in Luminatronics LED Litigation
New Patent Litigation
Luminatronics LLC has filed a second round in its sole litigation campaign, after dismissing without prejudice both of its March 2023 suits, one against each of Microchip Technology and TI. The new defendants are Analog Devices (2:25-cv-00135) and Bourns (4:25-cv-00111), both again filed in the Eastern District of Texas. A single patent generally related to controlling power dissipation in an LED lighting device is asserted against each new defendant, Analog Devices accused of infringement through the provision of its LT3797 Triple Output LED Driver Controller; Bourns, of its LED Shunt Protectors (LSPs).
February 8, 2025
Verizon Wireless Sued Again in Headwater’s Campaign, Where Standing Remains Contested
New Patent Litigation
Headwater Research LLC has filed a second Eastern District of Texas case against Verizon (Verizon Wireless) (2:25-cv-00156), adding five more patents to a litigation campaign that already had 30. The plaintiff targets a wide array of products, including its cellular networks, servers, and services; eSIM provisioning and management components and systems; and eSIM-enabled devices ranging from smartphones to vehicle infotainment systems. A first trial in this campaign went against Headwater last month, with a second, again against Samsung, now set for April 2025. The parties there continue to contest, among other things, Headwater’s standing, Samsung arguing that Qualcomm is the trueowner of this portfolio.
February 8, 2025
New Spangenberg Vehicle Appears to Have Multiple Patent Acquisitions in the Works
Patent Market, Patent Watch
This past week, SIM IP announced that it had entered into a “definitive agreement” to acquire Ultraleap’s haptics and extended reality (XR) IP portfolio, as part of a “new licensing partnership”. Ultraleap resulted from the 2019 merger of Ultrahaptics and Leap Motion, then characterized as “the world leaders in mid-air haptics, contactless interfaces and hand tracking technologies”. SIM IP was cofounded by its CEO Erich Spangenberg and CFO David Kutcher. Various signs point to more acquisitions by SIM IP, both last year and planned for the immediate future.
February 8, 2025
InterDigital Hits Disney in the Central District of California
New Patent Litigation
InterDigital, Inc., together with several subsidiaries, has filed suit against Disney (BAMTech, ESPN, Hulu) (2:25-cv-00895) in the Central District of California. Targeted with six patents is the provision of the defendants’ various video streaming services—including Disney+, ESPN+, Hulu, and Hulu Live. At issue is the support for the H.264 (AVC) and H.265 (HEVC) video compression standards, Dolby Vision technology, and “Skip Intro” tools.
February 7, 2025