Throughout 2021, Valtrus Innovations Limited (f/k/a Dolya Holdco 9 Limited) received at least 800 former HP Enterprise (HPE) patents through four assignments, one direct and the others via Ocean Tomo, LLC (as OT Patent Escrow LLC). Valtrus has now filed its first lawsuit, accusing Alphabet (Google) (3:22-cv-00066) of infringing six of those US patents through the provision of various software products, including Google Search, Google Cloud, and Google Cloud Run. Valtrus is an Irish NPE that corporate records link to a group of individuals behind several recent large portfolio acquisitions from operating companies.

Sonraí Memory Limited has expanded its first litigation campaign, launched in February 2021 over patents received from either Microchip Technology or HP Enterprise (HPE), with a suit against Lenovo (Motorola Mobility) (6:22-cv-00029) in the Western District of Texas. The sole asserted patent generally relates to a system with a single-die, multiprocessor chip that runs multiple operating systems; Lenovo is targeted over the provision of smartphones “with Qualcomm Snapdragon SoCs containing at least one Hexagon DSP”.

Last week, Dali Wireless opened up another front in its patent litigation battle with CommScope, Dali filing yet another case, this one in the Eastern District of Texas that also names AT&T and Ericsson as defendants (2:22-cv-00012). Litigation between CommScope and Dali Wireless dates back to February 2016. That case led to a June 2019 Northern District of Texas jury verdict awarding damages for competing infringement findings. A Federal Circuit appeal was taken, resulting in a reversal as to only one of two infringed Dali Wireless patents, while yet another case between the two, filed by Dali against CommScope in the District of Delaware in early 2019, preps for trial, now set for spring 2022—there, District Judge Maryellen Noreika has just adopted a fellow judge’s procedure “to combat excessive summary judgment motion practice in patent cases”.

Slingshot Printing LLC has added a second defendant to the first of its two litigation campaigns—this one launched in June 2019 with a case against HP—suing Canon (2:22-cv-00123) in the Eastern District of New York. The NPE asserts four patents described by the plaintiff as related to “inkjet printer technology”, with infringement allegations targeting the provision of inkjet printers and related products, including ink cartridges and printheads.

Cedar Lane Technologies Inc. has filed another round of cases in its long-running litigation over former Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) patents, suing HP (6:22-cv-00040), TI (6:22-cv-00047), Thorlabs (6:22-cv-00053), Qualcomm (6:22-cv-00046), and Verizon (6:22-cv-00043) in the Western District of Texas; Lenovo (1:22-cv-00051), Lionsgate (Epix) (1:22-cv-00050), Phytec (1:22-cv-00054), and Snap (1:22-cv-00058) in the District of Delaware; and L.S. Starrett (1:22-cv-00149) in the Northern District of Georgia. The 13 patents-in-suit are among over 50 assets (received either directly or indirectly from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV)) that the plaintiff has asserted against over 185 defendants since May 2019; the defendants are accused of infringement through the provision of a wide array of products, including cameras, smartphones, tablets, scanners, processors, and more.

On January 13, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to send President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s nominee for USPTO director, Kathi Vidal, to the full Senate. The move all but ensures Vidal’s confirmation, coming shortly after announcements by two of the committee’s top Republican members—Senators Thom Tillis (NC) and Chuck Grassley (IA)—that they would vote in her favor. If confirmed, Vidal will take the helm of the agency amid robust stakeholder debate over the policies of her predecessor, Andrei Iancu, as detailed in RPX’s recently released report on the state of patent litigation, the patent marketplace, and patent policy at the close of 2021.

Western District of Texas Judge Alan D. Albright has become well known for his restrictive posture toward certain defensive motions in patent litigation, including convenience transfer motions, requests to stay litigation pending the outcome of America Invents Act (AIA) reviews, and patent eligibility challenges. While Judge Albright has granted such motions to transfer or stay on occasion, he had previously never invalidated a patent under Section 101—but that changed just as 2021 drew to a close. The invalidations capped off a year in which Judge Albright again had more patent litigation fall in his courtroom than any other judge, as noted in RPX’s upcoming fourth-quarter review.

Estech Systems IP LLC, a subsidiary of Estech Systems, Inc. (Estech), has revived the litigation campaign that Estech launched in April 2020, suing 99 Cent Only Stores, Abbott Laboratories, BMW, Carvana, Charles Schwab, Conduent, Extra Space, First American Financial (Republic Title of Texas), Fiserv, Liberty Mutual, Marriott, McKesson, Petco, Public Storage, Primoris Services, Randstad, SoFi, and Toyota in separate Eastern District of Texas suits. The asserted patents are broadly directed to various aspects of Voice over IP (VoIP) technology (e.g., Caller ID, call quality monitoring, voicemail systems, and phone directories), with the defendants accused of infringement through the provision or use of VoIP products.

Bassfield IP LLC, a plaintiff apparently associated with IP Edge LLC, has filed its first litigation, suing 7-Eleven (6:21-cv-01355), Brinker (6:21-cv-01366), Denny’s (6:21-cv-01380), Home Depot (6:21-cv-01367), InterContinental Hotels (6:21-cv-01356), and Target (6:21-cv-01381) in separate Western District of Texas suits. The sole asserted patent, acquired from Xerox in October 2021, generally relates to a composite image with a “machine-readable” background layer comprised of “coded glyphtone cells” and a second, “human-readable” image. Infringement allegations focus on the incorporation of company logos on QR codes.

Cedar Lane Technologies Inc. has hit 2022 ground running with five new suits filed in its longest running litigation campaign. So far this month, the NPE has sued Excelitas Technologies (1:22-cv-00011), Illunis (1:22-cv-00012), MGM (1:22-cv-00014), and Novantas (1:22-cv-00016) in the District of Delaware and Generac (Ecobee) (6:22-cv-00018) in the Western District of Texas. The plaintiff asserts three patents in overlapping sets, with the defendants accused of infringement through the provision of a wide variety of products, including barcode scanners and cameras. Since launching this, its first litigation campaign, in May 2019, Cedar Lane has sued over 175 defendants and asserted a total of 50 patents (each received either directly or indirectly from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV)).