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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
No Hibernation for Fortress’s Uniloc 2017 This Winter
New Patent Litigation
December saw continued litigation over patents from a portfolio that Uniloc Corporation Pty. Limited acquired from Pendrell Corporation in January 2018. Having taken ownership of seemingly all of Uniloc’s patents in May, including the former Pendrell patents, Fortress Investment Group LLC (through subsidiary Uniloc 2017 LLC) is the plaintiff asserting them now. Alphabet (Google) was the NPE’s principal target in December, with seven new Eastern District of Texas suits filed against the tech giant, but Fortress also sued Microsoft (8:18-cv-02224), Netflix (8:18-cv-02150), Roku (1:18-cv-01126), and Verizon (2:18-cv-00536) last month.
January 5, 2019
Dominion Kicks Off New Year with More Litigation from Its Recent Large-Portfolio Acquisitions
New Patent Litigation
Sovereign Peak Ventures, LLC (SPV) has added a second defendant to the litigation campaign that it began in December, suing Lifi Labs (3:19-cv-00025) in the Northern District of California. The two LED lighting patents asserted in the new complaint, received as part of a large portfolio reportedly acquired from Panasonic, are also at issue, together with a third family, in the first complaint, filed against Feit Electric in the Central District of California. At issue in the campaign is the defendants’ provision of LED light bulbs capable of adjusting their output to produce different colors and/or different temperatures of white light. SPV is an affiliate of Texas monetization firm Dominion Harbor Enterprises LLC, which also acquired sizeable portfolios of patents from Intellectual Ventures LLC (IV) in 2018.
January 4, 2019
Recent Networking Campaign of IP Edge Sees Second Round of Suits
New Patent Litigation
IP Edge LLC affiliate Mentone Solutions LLC has added a second round of cases to its campaign targeting devices with Dual-Carrier HSPA+ capability. The new defendants are Airbus Space and Defense (1:18-cv-03321), ASUSTek (3:18-cv-07749), CradlePoint (1:18-cv-02041), NetComm Wireless (1:18-cv-02040), and Peplink (3:18-cv-07754), the complaints identifying as accused products the Airbus Tactilon Dabat, ASUSTek’s ZenFone 4 Pro Zs551K; CradlePoint’s MC400 modem; and certain routers of NetComm and Peplink, respectively. With the transfer of the prior case against Acer to the Western District of Texas, this campaign now proceeds in multiple districts, including the Eastern District of Texas, the Northern District of California, the District of Delaware, and the District of Colorado.
January 3, 2019
Rothschild’s QR Code Campaigns Continue to Grow
New Patent Litigation
The second of two QR (Quick Response) Code campaigns litigated by frequent plaintiff Leigh M. Rothschild has snagged five more defendants in the early days of 2019. Suits against Delta Electronics (3:19-cv-00067), Driscoll’s (5:19-cv-00069), Hyland’s (2:19-cv-00079), Iconix Ecom (1:19-cv-00118), and TP-Link (8:19-cv-00019) brought the number of defendants hit by Coding Technologies, LLC above 80. As throughout the campaign, the NPE asserts in these new complaints a single patent generally related to information retrieval using a barcode. The number of defendants in the Coding Technologies campaign has yet to overtake the number tagged in Rothschild’s earlier QR code campaign, litigated by affiliates RFID Technology Innovations, LLC and Symbology Innovations, LLC, which neared 135 with the addition of three defendants (Converse, Pilot Corporation of America, and Vital Farms) this past November.
January 2, 2019
Irish NPE Launches Cloud Computing Campaign
New Patent Litigation
Data Scape Limited, an NPE formed in Ireland in January 2017, has launched its first litigation campaign, asserting subsets of eight patents in separate cases filed against Apple (2:18-cv-10659), Citrix (2:18-cv-10658), Pandora (2:18-cv-10656), Spotify (2:18-cv-10653), and Western Digital (8:18-cv-02285) in the Central District of California, and against Dell (6:18-cv-00658), Fujitsu (6:18-cv-00659), and SAP (6:18-cv-00660) in the Eastern District of Texas. The patents belong to 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. That transaction involved over 20 issued US patents, together with foreign counterparts issuing in Canada, Europe, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, and the United Kingdom. Data Scape targets products and services of the defendants that sync documents and data (e.g., music files) across servers and client devices.
December 31, 2018