Showing 1 - 10 of 414 news articles
Each week, RPX publishes the latest news on patent litigation and market trends. Never miss a headline. Get them delivered right to your inbox.
In New Colorado Cases, Data Scape Adds Amazon and F5 Networks to Cloud Computing Campaign
New Patent Litigation
The campaign that Data Scape Limited kicked off late last year has seen its first defendants added in 2019 after the NPE sued Amazon (1:19-cv-00056) and F5 Networks (1:19-cv-00064), both in the District of Colorado. Its new infringement allegations are in line with those in prior complaints, with Data Scape targeting products and services that synchronize data across multiple devices, including “Amazon Kindle, Amazon Photo, Amazon Drive, Amazon Prime Music, Amazon Music Unlimited, [and] Amazon devices on which they operate (e.g., Fire, Echo, Kindle, Amazon servers, etc.)” and F5’s BIG-IP software and hardware, respectively. The NPE asserts in each complaint overlapping subsets of patents from a portfolio comprising two families, both broadly pertaining to storing and syncing data files in a distributed computing environment and both received through a March 2017 assignment from Sony.
January 12, 2019
Dominion Harbor Reboots Cloud Storage Campaign
New Patent Litigation
Mobile Networking Solutions, LLC (MNS), an affiliate of Texas monetization and advisory firm Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC, has revived a sleeping campaign over a family of physical computer storage patents. This past week MNS sued Alibaba (3:19-cv-00217) and Uber (3:19-cv-00219), training its infringement allegations on the use of cloud storage systems based on Hadoop, including its Distributed File System (HDFS), YARN, and MapReduce. MNS asserted patents from this family in a case brought in 2017 against Experian and MapR Distribution; the family was previously at issue in a much larger campaign litigated by Parallel Iron LLC (a subsidiary of IP Navigation Group, LLC d/b/a IPNav), which hit nearly 50 defendants between 2011 and 2014.
January 12, 2019
Assignment Records Confirm Parts of Recent Large-Portfolio Acquisitions
Patent Market, Patent Watch
This past week, the USPTO made public assignment records confirming the acquisition of patents by two NPEs that have recently filed litigation. According to those records, Sovereign Peak Ventures, LLC (SPV), an affiliate of Texas monetization firm Dominion Harbor Enterprises LLC, received over 500 assets from Panasonic in October 2018. SPV has launched a first litigation campaign from those assets, asserting three LED lighting patents in cases filed in December 2018 and earlier this month. The recently released USPTO records also identify roughly 65 US patents assigned from Entropic Communications, a subsidiary of MaxLinear, to Dynamic Data Technologies, LLC (DDT). Those patents are part of a larger acquisition effort by DDT, which in October began an international litigation campaign asserting a subset of the acquired portfolio.
January 12, 2019
EFF Asks to Intervene to Oppose Motions to Seal Clouding May 2018 Deal Between Fortress and Uniloc
Patent Market, Patent Watch
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has asked District Judge William H. Alsup for permission to jump into the standing fight between Apple and subsidiaries of NPE Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited. Last year, Apple moved to dismiss multiple cases filed against it, arguing that after a May 2018 deal between Uniloc and Fortress Investment Group LLC, the plaintiffs lack standing to assert the patents-in-suit. The EFF, a self-described “donor-funded, non-profit civil liberties organization” with “more than 39,000 active members”, has now moved to intervene in those cases (3:18-cv-00360, 3:18-cv-00363, 3:18-cv-00572, 3:18-cv-00365) for a limited purpose: to oppose motions to file under seal the agreements that apparently apportion rights in the large portfolio of patents that Uniloc transferred to Fortress last May, as well as large parts of the parties’ briefs arguing about the legal consequences flowing from those agreements. EFF contends that those briefs’ heavy redactions, supported only by “rote justifications” in declarations filed by counsel for Uniloc, rob the public of its common law and First Amendment rights of access.
January 11, 2019
Supreme Court Requests Views of Solicitor General in Berkheimer Appeal
Patent Litigation Feature
After the US Supreme Court’s 2014 Alice decision, defendants jumped at the chance to challenge the eligibility of a patent under Section 101 early in litigation. Such motions remained routine, subsequent narrowing caselaw notwithstanding, until February 2018. That month, the Federal Circuit held—in Berkheimer v. HP—that summary judgment of patent ineligibility is premature where a party raises questions of fact as to whether the patent’s claims contain the required inventive concept. The Federal Circuit’s decision in Berkheimer, and its companion ruling in Aatrix Software v. Green Shades Software (holding that such factual disputes could also preclude resolution of 101 challenges at the Rule 12 stage), have raised questions about whether patent eligibility will ultimately become an issue not properly raised until much closer to trial, or even later. That question may soon come before the Supreme Court, which on January 7 requested the views of US Solicitor General Noel Francisco as to the certiorari petition filed by HP last September in the Berkheimer case.
January 11, 2019
Proximity Sensors Turns to Suppliers in Latest Complaints
New Patent Litigation
Proximity Sensors of Texas LLC, an affiliate of monetization firm IP Valuation Partners LLC (d/b/a IPVal), has filed new cases in its campaign over a single patent generally related to an apparatus on an object’s surface that emits light and receives back reflected light. The NPE accuses AMS (AMS-TAOS USA) (4:19-cv-00026) in the Eastern District of Texas and ROHM (ROHM Semiconductor USA) (1:19-cv-00208) in the Northern District of Illinois of direct infringement, calling out their AMS tmd2771/ tmd277x and ROHM rpr0521 sensors, respectively, further alleging indirect infringement through the provision of products (e.g., smartphones and tablets) that include such sensors. In prior cases in the campaign, Proximity Sensors named smartphone and tablet makers themselves—Apple, Huawei, Microsoft, and ZTE—as defendants.
January 11, 2019
Two Defendants Join Akoloutheo’s Network Management Campaign, as Another Seeks a More Definite Statement
New Patent Litigation
Akoloutheo, LLC has added two more cases to its network management campaign, suing Mitel Networks (4:19-cv-00021) and Palo Alto Networks (4:19-cv-00014), both in the Eastern District of Texas. The sole patent asserted generally concerns “controlling any type of transaction between providers and consumers of information services”. In the Mitel complaint, Akoloutheo identifies “Mitel Software” (as covering “Mitel’s Teamwork, MiCollab, MiTeam, OfficeLink, MiCloud, MiContact, MiVoice and Phone Manager software systems”), “Mitel Network Devices” (as including “Mitel’s Sky, MiCloud, Clearspan, Collaboration Service, StreamLine, and MiVoice Appliances, Consoles, Controllers, Devices, Gateways, Routers and Switches”), and “Network Resources” (as “components that are communicably coupled to, and provide access to, a plurality of networked data, communication, information and application resources”) before collectively defining all of them as a “Mitel System” that the NPE identifies as the “infringing instrumentalities”. Faced with analogous definitions and identifications, prior defendant Netscout Systems has, in lieu of answering the complaint filed against it, moved under Rule 12 for a more definite statement concerning the products specifically accused of infringement in that case, characterizing Akoloutheo as having attempted to meet its pleading obligations “through length, rather than clarity”.
January 11, 2019
Apple Seeks Rehearing from a Third PTAB Panel After Partial Grant of Sanctions over Improper Ex Parte Communications
Patent Litigation Feature
Apple has filed—with a third panel assigned to the proceeding—a request for rehearing of its inter partes review (IPR) of two patents held and asserted by publicly traded VoIP-Pal.com, Inc. The original panel was replaced midstream after Dr. Thomas E. Sawyer, VoIP-Pal’s former CEO and chairman, sent the first of a series of letters to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) (also copying various other government officials), letters that the Board now agrees were improper ex parte communications. The replacement panel issued final written decisions sustaining all of the claims that Apple had challenged. Apple then learned about all six, improperly sent letters and asked for permission to file a motion seeking sanctions against VoIP-Pal. That permission was granted. Apple sought entry of judgment in its favor or, in the alternative, vacatur of those final written decisions. Just before Christmas, the third panel—comprising the Board’s Acting Chief Administrative Patent Judge (APJ), its Acting Deputy Chief APJ, and its Vice Chief APJ—agreed that VoIP-Pal’s communications violated Board rules but stopped short in its sanctions, leaving Apple to file with that third panel its current request for rehearing of the replacement panel’s final written decisions.
January 10, 2019
Quarterhill’s Earnings Get Even “Lumpier” After Judge Trims Damages Award Against Apple
Patent Market, Patent Watch
Quarterhill Inc. closed 2018 with multiple new licenses, including with OmniVision (for patents acquired from Panasonic) and Powerchip (covering patents acquired from Infineon). Meanwhile, various Quarterhill subsidiaries continue litigating patents received from Infineon, OKI, or Panasonic, with recently released USPTO records suggesting that more litigation is coming. One thing is certain, however: Quarterhill’s earnings, which its executives have referred to as “lumpy”, just got lumpier. On Thursday, a judge slashed the company’s Q3 trial win against Apple from $145.1M to just $10M.
January 7, 2019
InterDigital Sued by Semiconductor Firm in California over FRAND Licensing Misconduct as NPE’s SEP Dispute with Huawei Escalates in China
Patent Litigation Feature
Publicly traded InterDigital, Inc. has been hit with an international salvo of complaints over the NPE’s alleged breach of its fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) licensing obligations as to certain standard essential patents (SEPs) covering cellular technologies. In California, Swiss semiconductor firm u-blox has sued InterDigital for allegedly insisting on unfair and discriminatory licensing terms for certain 2G, 3G, and 4G patents while using abusive tactics to force it to take a license, including inappropriate communications with its customers and downstream manufacturers. The plaintiff has asked the court to determine a FRAND licensing rate, enjoin InterDigital from making further contact with its clients, and to issue a declaration of noninfringement for certain wireless communications products, including cellular modules implementing the LTE standard. Meanwhile, InterDigital disclosed on January 7 that it was just sued in China by Huawei, which has alleged that the NPE has violated its FRAND obligations as to certain patents related to 3G, 4G, and 5G standards. Huawei has purportedly asked the court to determine the proper licensing rate for certain wireless products following the expiration of a license at the end of 2018.
January 6, 2019