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Cumberland Systems, LLC has opened up a second litigation campaign, suing Lenovo (Motorola Mobility) (1:18-cv-00594) and Nokia (1:18-cv-00593) over the provision of smartphones using Google’s Android operating system and offering non-English touchscreen keyboards that present an alternate character selection menu after the user touches and holds a character. A single patent, generally related to “dynamic” text generation, is asserted in the new complaints. Cumberland received the patent in the same transaction that gave rise to its May 2017 password management campaign.

Accelerated Memory Tech, LLC, an entity affiliated with Atlanta-based monetization firm IP Investments Group, LLC (d/b/a IPinvestments Group), has filed its first case, suing Citrix (2:18-cv-00052) in the Northern District of Georgia. The plaintiff accuses Citrix of infringing a single patent, generally related to improving server performance, through the provision of NetScaler ADC (application delivery controller). In February, RPX noted the assignment of the patent-in-suit to Accelerated Memory, in likely preparation for the litigation that has now occurred.

Notable among the patent transactions recently made public by the USPTO is a transfer from Marathon Patent Group, Inc. to Fortress Investment Group LLC, in satisfaction of a prior debt, and an assignment from Samsung to Unwired Planet International Ltd.

Linksmart Wireless Technology, LLC began its sole litigation campaign in 2008, suing multiple companies over one patent generally related to automatic, user-specific redirection. At issue were the defendants’ products and systems for providing Internet access in hotspots and hospitality (i.e., hotel) settings. Ten years later, the same patent having emerged from reissue proceedings last summer, the NPE has now taken aim at two purveyors of in-flight entertainment systems—Gogo (8:18-cv-00654) and Panasonic (Panasonic Avionics) (8:18-cv-00662)—separately suing the airlines that use them: for Gogo, AeroMexico (2:18-cv-03335), Air Canada (2:18-cv-03337), Air France-KLM (2:18-cv-03341), Alaska Air (2:18-cv-03345), American Airlines (2:18-cv-03349), British Airways (2:18-cv-03352), Delta Air Lines (2:18-cv-03354), United Continental Holdings (2:18-cv-03348); and for Panasonic Avionics, Southwest Airlines (8:18-cv-00660), The Emirates Group (2:18-cv-03353), and Westjet Airlines (8:18-cv-00657). The recent round of litigation does not however leave the ground entirely; Linksmart has also sued Sonifi Solutions (2:18-cv-03344) for providing Internet access in earthbound hospitality settings.

Secure Cam, LLC, an NPE formed in Wyoming last July, has filed its first lawsuit, suing Project Nursery (5:18-cv-02335), a San Francisco-based company established by two friends “who set out to help parents find the vision, tools, and products for all their baby nursery and kid-friendly decorating projects”. Project Nursery notes that its brand “now includes various licensed products such as [its] exciting new line of nursery electronics, including the Project Nursery Baby Monitor and Sight & Sound Projector (a Techlicious Best of CES Award-winning joint venture with VOXX International)”, available through various retailers. The company is now accused of infringing one patent, generally related to transmitting video images over a network, through the manufacture and sale of some of those baby monitors.

On the day of a related claim construction hearing in Texas, CyWee Group Ltd. has sued Alphabet (Google) (1:18-cv-00571) in Delaware. The hearing concerned terms from the same two patents asserted against Google, patents generally related to measuring, calculating, and outputting the movement of a device so that those movements can be translated to a two-dimensional screen. Targeted in the new complaint are the Google Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2, and Pixel 2 XL smartphones and the virtual reality and/or augmented features offered by those devices, as enabled by each device’s 3-axis accelerometer, 3-axis gyroscope, and/or 3-axis geomagnetic field sensor. This multidistrict campaign has been running through the major smartphone providers since April 2014.

IP Valuation Partners LLC (d/b/a IPVal) has initiated a new litigation campaign, through affiliated plaintiff Contemporary Display LLC, filing suit against LG Electronics (LGE) (2:18-cv-00152) in the Eastern District of Texas. The complaint asserts three patents recently acquired from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV), one of them generally related to an on-screen system for managing the inputs to a television and the other two generally related to a similar system for displaying television programming schedules. LGE is accused of infringement through the provision of smart TVs with webOS, including the LG 49UJ6300, LG 55UJ6200 and the LG 49LJ550M televisions.

In the summer of 2015, publicly traded NPE ITUS Corporation, announced executive changes and a new focus for the company’s future business: cancer diagnostics. This past November, ITUS continued its apparent pivot away from patent assertion, forming a new subsidiary to develop “immuno-therapy drugs against cancer”, revealing an initial focus on ovarian cancer, and indicating that the company will remain engaged in “limited patent licensing activities in the area of encrypted audio/video conference calling” only as part of its “legacy operations”, which would not “require material financial resources or attention of senior management”. Nevertheless, this past week, ITUS subsidiary Meetrix IP, LLC filed separate lawsuits against Cisco (1:18-cv-00309) and Microsoft (1:18-cv-00310), targeting the defendants’ WebEx and Skype (and Skype for Business) products, respectively, each with patents from its “encrypted audio/video conference calling” portfolio.

Vindolor, LLC has launched a new litigation campaign, filing four separate suits against retailers Buc-ee’s (6:18-cv-00104), Euromarket Designs (d/b/a Crate & Barrel) (6:18-cv-00105), Retail Services & Systems (d/b/a Total Wine & More) (6:18-cv-00108), and Spec’s Family Partners (d/b/a Spec’s Wine, Spirits & Finer Foods) (6:18-cv-00107) over their use of NFC-enabled point-of-sale terminals offering contactless payments. The NPE alleges infringement through the accused terminals’ compatibility with “Microsoft Wallet, Wells Fargo Wallet, Masterpass, Samsung Pay, Android Pay, Google Pay, Google Wallet, Apple Pay, and PayPal mobile” as used with various Android, iOS, and/or Windows smartphones and related mobile apps.

Infernal Technology, LLC, as exclusive licensee, and Terminal Reality Inc., as patent owner, have sued Microsoft (2:18-cv-00144) over the same two patents at issue in the case that the two Texas plaintiffs brought against Electronic Arts (EA) in September 2015. The asserted patents generally relate to lighting and shadowing in computer graphics, with the plaintiffs accusing Microsoft of infringement through the provision of Xbox consoles and Surface computers, along with a variety of games and game engines used to develop them. EA filed a motion to change venue (on which the district court never ruled), objections to an order construing disputed claim terms (which the district court overruled), and multiple petitions for inter partes review (IPR) (which resulted in final written decisions that did not cancel any of the challenged claims), all before the case against it was dismissed with prejudice, in light of apparent settlement, in January 2018.